Finland’s Supreme Court convicts ex-interior minister Paivi Rasanen for hate speech, overturning lower courts and fining her for anti-gay pamphlet.
HELSINKI: Finland’s Supreme Court has convicted former interior minister Paivi Rasanen of hate speech and fined her over comments on homosexuality.
The ruling overturns two previous lower court decisions that had found the Christian Democrat MP not guilty.
Rasanen was fined 1,800 euros following the court’s decision.
The case centred on a pamphlet she wrote in 2004, which was published online in 2019 and 2020.
In the text, Rasanen described same-sex relationships as challenging “the Christian idea of humanity”.
She also labelled homosexuality a “psychosexual developmental disorder” and an “abnormality”.
“If homosexuality is a developmental disorder, practicing it should not be encouraged,” Rasanen wrote.
The Supreme Court ruled that these parts of the text “insult homosexuals as a group based on their sexual orientation”.
Bishop Juhana Pohjola of the Luther Foundation Finland, which published the pamphlet, was also fined.
The foundation itself received a 5,000 euro fine.
A separate charge relating to a critical 2019 tweet about the Finnish Lutheran church’s Pride partnership was dismissed.
Rasanen, a medical doctor by training, served as interior minister from 2011 to 2015.
She also led her party from 2004 to 2015, a period during which she voted Finland’s current incitement law through parliament.
The case has drawn significant international attention, including from US conservative Christian groups.
Rasanen testified about the matter before the US Congress in February.
She described the Supreme Court’s verdict as a “shock”.
“I’m already giving serious consideration to appealing this to the European Court of Human Rights,” Rasanen told a press conference.
