Helsinki District Court dismisses incitement to Christian Democrat MP News
The court found MP Päivi Räsänen’s negative statements about homosexuality offensive, but did not signal hate speech.
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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 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 with his defense team. argue that the case focused on freedom of expression and opinion.
The court ruled that freedom of speech and religious rights are not unlimited.
“However, restricting them requires a compelling societal reason. Securing the dignity and equality of people belonging to sexual minority groups may be one such reason,” the court ruling said.
Dues
The first indictment concerned a pamphlet he wrote in 2004 entitled “He created them into men and women. Homosexuality challenges the Christian conception of manhood.”
The second accusation concerned Räsänen’s tweeting about the upcoming Pride procession in Helsinki in 2019, in which he asked how “the doctrine of the founding of the church, the Bible, is suitable for celebrating shame and sin.” 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 argued that research has shown that “the potential genetic heredity of homosexuality is quite small,” then argued that human genetics has “specialized” over millennia and all of 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.
Last summer, Yle said a conservative Lutheran pastor from the U.S. state of Virginia was planning it. hold a demonstration Outside the Finnish Embassy in Washington in support of Räsänen.