Finland’s top court fines ex-minister for remarks on homosexuals

HELSINKI - Finland’s Supreme Court on March 26 convicted former interior minister and MP Paivi Rasanen for hate speech and fined her over her comments on homosexuality.

The ruling overturns the decisions of two lower courts, who found her not guilty.

Rasanen, a member of the Christian Democrats, wrote a pamphlet in 2004 in which she said same-sex relationships “challenge the Christian idea of humanity”.

It was published online in 2019 and 2020.

In the text running over 20 pages, Rasanen called homosexuality a “psychosexual developmental disorder” and an “abnormality”.

She said: “if homosexuality is a developmental disorder, practising it should not be encouraged”.

The Supreme Court said the parts of the text “insult homosexuals as a group based on their sexual orientation”.

Rasanen was fined €1,800 (S$2,669), according to Finnish public broadcaster Yle.

Bishop Juhana Pohjola of the Luther Foundation Finland, a conservative Christian group that published the pamphlet online, was also fined and the foundation itself was fined €5,000.

Rasanen had also been charged over a 2019 tweet where she critised the Finnish Lutheran church for partnering with that year’s Pride celebration, accusing the organisation of “elevating shame and sin to a subject of pride”, but the Supreme Court dismissed the charge.

The case has received international attention, including among ultra-conservative Christian groups in the United States, and Rasanen testified about the case before the US Congress in February.

Rasanen said the decision came as a “shock” to her.

“I’m already giving serious consideration to appealing this to the European Court of Human Rights”, she told a press conference.

Rasanen, who trained as a medical doctor, served as Finland’s interior minister between 2011 and 2015 and the leader of her party between 2004 and 2015, during which time she voted Finland’s current incitement law through Parliament. AFP