Finnish MP Päivi Räsänen announced today that she will take her conviction for “insulting a group” to the European Court of Human Rights, setting up a test of how far free speech and religious expression are protected under European law.
The Finnish Supreme Court found her guilty in March 2026, by a narrow 3–2 majority, for disseminating a 2004 pamphlet to her religious community. In that text, Räsänen outlined the Christian conception of marriage as a union between a man and a woman and questioned certain practices from that doctrinal perspective.
BREAKING: Christian Finnish parliamentarian Päivi Räsänen, who was criminally convicted for “hate speech” by her country’s Supreme Court for a church booklet she wrote decades ago, has today announced that she will appeal her case to the European Court of Human Rights. pic.twitter.com/pQgsNZdRAb
— ADF International (@ADFIntl) May 7, 2026
