The Helsinki District Court dismissed all charges against the Christian Democrats on Wednesday. Päivi RäsänenIn the first case of its kind in Finnish legal history.
The district court found Räsänen innocent in all three charges of incitement against a minority group in connection with his written and oral statements about homosexuality.
The veteran politician has been very open about his views on homosexuality for years, saying repeatedly that he did not blame homosexuals themselves, but their actions.
The criminal trial was the first time a Finnish court had ruled on whether quoting the Bible could be considered a criminal offense.
Member of Parliament Räsänen, who also served as Minister of the Interior in 2011-2015, denied all charges and his defense team claimed that freedom of speech and opinion were at the center of the case.
The court ruled that freedom of speech and religious rights are not unlimited.
"However, limiting them requires a compelling social reason. Safeguarding the dignity and equality of people belonging to sexual minority groups can be one such reason," the court’s decision stated.
Dues
The first indictment related to a pamphlet he wrote in 2004, entitled "He created them male and female. Homosexuality challenges the Christian conception of man."
The second accusation concerned Räsänen’s tweeting about the upcoming Pride parade in Helsinki in 2019, in which he asked how "the basic doctrine of the church The Bible is apt to celebrate shame and sin as pride". The tweet contained a photograph of verses from a 1930s version of the Bible translated into Finnish.
The third indictment was related to Räsänen’s speeches from the end of 2019 in Yle’s radio talk show, which was hosted by a journalist. Ruben Stiller.
In an interview, Räsänen claimed that the research showed it "the potential genetic inheritance of homosexuality is relatively small," then argued that human genetics has "past" for millennia and throughout human history, so "it may not be what it was when we were created".
The court ruled on Wednesday that these statements offended homosexual people, but they cannot be considered hate speech.
Yle rejected the prosecutor’s request to remove his comment from the radio program, arguing that its duties as a broadcaster also included reporting controversial matters. The program that accompanies Räsänen can still be viewed on Yle Areena.
The two-day trial began on 24 January and the orders were issued on 14 February.
To stimulate discussion
Prior to the trial, Räsänen told police that he wanted to spark a debate with his opinion – not to offend gays – because he thought these were important issues related to freedom of speech and religion.
Accusations of Räsänen’s opinions about homosexuality attracted the attention and empathy of Christians and conservative individuals and groups abroad.
In mid-February he told Fox News that he found it "unbelievable" that the lawsuit against him continued because Finland is a "democracy."
Last summer, Yle said that a conservative Lutheran pastor from the US state of Virginia was planning to hold a demonstration in front of the Finnish Embassy in Washington to support Räsänen.
Source: The Nordic Page