“I am not stressed”, says Räsänen’s lawyer Matti Sankamo in the CNE podcast

Sankamo is the lawyer for the Finnish Member of Parliament, Päivi Räsanen. On October 30th, she will appear in an oral hearing at the Supreme Court in Helsinki. And the decision of this court is final, at least in Finland.

The persecution started in 2019 after Räsänen posted a tweet with questions about the Lutheran Church’s support for the Gay Pride in Helsinki together with a photo of Romans 1, in which the apostle calls sex between men dishonourable.

Two earlier courts acquitted her unanimously of all the charges. But the prosecutor wants this case to be heard at the highest level: the Supreme Court.

No doubt, this case could shape the future of freedom of both speech and religion in Finland and perhaps the rest of Europe.

In the podcast, the advocate states that it is “very rare” that the Supreme Court in Finland holds an oral hearing. Most attorneys never have cases at this court, making it a unique event in Sankamo’s professional life.

He assumes the judges did this because this is a “high-profile case” with broad media attention. In such cases, it could be important for the court to show that justice exists for all parties.

Another reason could be that the judges are interested in “Räsänen’s intention behind the tweet”.

To podcast host Evert van Vlastuin, Matti explains that it is not the duty of the Supreme Court to find new evidence but rather to find out whether the evidence was interpreted correctly at lower levels.

So far, he says the prosecutor’s legal argumentation was “very abstract.” She quoted more international conventions than national law.

Matti agrees that this case can have international consequences. He himself borrowed some of the argumentation from the case of the Swedish pastor Åke Green. This Pentecostal pastor was first convicted for a sermon in 2003 in which he called homosexual practice a sin but was acquitted by the Supreme Court in Sweden. “So, if we win, it can influence other lawyers in other countries. Obviously, it is not going to be binding for foreign courts.”

If Räsänen loses, she can appeal to the European Court for Human Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg. “But that’s a very different kind of process, and the consequences are different. So, it’s important for us to win in Finland.”

🎧 Listen now to understand the story behind one of Europe’s most-watched Christian trials — and meet the lawyer.