Senior Finnish politician Paivi Rassenen is at risk of being dragged into court again over “homophobic” tweets and posts dating back 20 years, despite already being acquitted twice. confronting.
Finnish prosecutors say Paivi Rassenen, a longtime member of parliament, party leader and former interior minister, was exercising his freedom of speech when he quoted the Bible and discussed homosexuality several times between 2004 and 2019. The company is appealing against the court ruling in November 2023. Lehsenen, a former leader of the Finnish Christian Democratic Party, holds orthodox views on the issue and has been quoted in the past describing homosexuality as a “disorder of psychosexual development.” poem From St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans on Instagram.
The Helsinki District Court has already unanimously acquitted Lehsenen of hate speech charges brought in 2022 under a section of the Finnish Criminal Code that deals with “war crimes and crimes against humanity” “I cannot make a judgment,” the court ruled. Interpret Biblical concepts. ” This was appealed to the Helsinki Court of Appeal, which unanimously dismissed the case again on similar grounds last November.
Prosecutors are currently taking this issue to the Supreme Court, but report Finland's public broadcaster YLE said it wanted to resolve the relationship between “freedom of religion, freedom of speech and non-discrimination, and when expression should be considered punishable hate speech.” Prosecutors are seeking a large fine and the censorship of Lehsenen's book.
Finland's former interior minister on trial for 'hate speech' with Bible verse https://t.co/Q3nW80oX6f
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) January 26, 2022
The new charges are apparently being pushed forward, even though Rassenen's Christian Democrats are now in power as part of Finland's new right-wing coalition.
The International Defenders of Freedom (ADF), which has been supporting Ressenen, praised the prosecutor's determination to obtain a conviction for Ressenen and warned that prosecutors may be using the endless trial as a means to punish him. suggested. It never ends in a sentence.
ADF Director-General Paul Coleman said of the incident: “Dragging people in court for years, subjecting them to hour-long police interrogations, and wasting taxpayers' money to crack down on people's deeply held beliefs is a democratic crisis.'' “This should not be tolerated in a principled society.” . As is often the case in “hate speech” trials, the process is punishing. ”
Resenen himself remains bullish, vowing to fight and welcoming the chance to get another ruling in his favor at the nation's highest court, setting a strong precedent in favor of free speech.
She is reported to have said: “After being completely acquitted by two courts, I am not afraid of a hearing in the Supreme Court. I know there are risks involved in any trial, but a Supreme Court acquittal is not a good idea because of speech and religion. It would set an even stronger positive precedent for everyone's right to freedom. And if the court decides to overturn the lower court's acquittal, I will go as far as the European Court of Human Rights to rule on speech and religion. We are ready to defend the freedom of
Finnish police claim they suppressed Quran-burning protests https://t.co/c8Ihlcl4FH
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) February 3, 2023
