Finnish Member of Parliament Päivi Räsänen is set to appear before the country’s Supreme Court on October 30, following two prior acquittals on charges of “hate speech”.

Räsänen, a former Minister of the Interior and long-serving MP, first came under investigation in 2019 after posting a tweet that included Bible verses questioning her church’s sponsorship of an LGBT Pride event.

The tweet, along with a 2004 church pamphlet and comments made during a live radio debate, became the basis for criminal charges under Finland’s laws on “agitation against a minority group,” a section of the criminal code typically reserved for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Alongside Räsänen, Lutheran Bishop Juhana Pohjola was also charged for publishing the pamphlet. Both were unanimously acquitted by the Helsinki District Court in April 2022 and again by the Court of Appeal in November 2023. 

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