Finnish MP Päivi Räsänen has confirmed she is appealing her “hate speech” case to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), saying that she is fighting for the rights of “everyone” in Finland.
As we have previously reported, the former leader of the Christian Democrat Party was cleared of all charges relating to a 2019 tweet featuring a Bible verse but also convicted of “hate speech” for expressing traditional views about marriage in a church pamphlet over 20 years ago by the Finnish Supreme Court in March.
Many had wondered whether the 66-year-old would appeal the verdict given by the nation’s highest court. Räsänen answered any lingering questions in a video posted online by ADF International, in which she confirmed she will take the case to the highest human rights court on the continent.
The grandmother of 12 said: “With the support of ADF International, I plan to take my case to the ECHR. I am doing this in defence of not only my own free speech rights, but those of everyone in my country.
“Bishop Juhana Pohjola was criminally convicted alongside me for publishing the booklet for our church. The court ordered us to pay thousands of euros in fines and further ruled that passages of the booklet deemed 'hate speech' be 'removed from public access and destroyed'. Because of the severe violations of freedoms of speech and religion that we have experienced, it is necessary to appeal this case to Europe’s highest human rights court.”
