Finnish lawmaker and former Interior Minister Päivi Räsänen is calling on the British government to reverse a decision barring her from entering the United Kingdom.
She was convicted in Finland over statements reflecting her Christian beliefs on marriage and sexual ethics and had been scheduled to address a free speech conference in Northern Ireland.
The U.K. revoked Räsänen’s Electronic Travel Authorization, or ETA, in July after initially approving it in June, according to ADF International, which is assisting with her legal case.
The British government’s decision followed a March ruling by Finland’s Supreme Court that convicted Räsänen of “hate speech” in connection with a church booklet on marriage and sexuality that she authored in 2004.
Räsänen, a member of the Finnish Parliament’s “Friends of the United Kingdom” group, was reportedly required to participate in the Northern Ireland conference remotely on Wednesday and Friday. Before Friday’s session, she and the organization appealed to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood to intervene.
Räsänen criticized the travel restriction, saying she was stunned that the U.K. had prevented an elected official from a friendly European nation from entering the country. She said she had been convicted of “hate speech” in Finland for peacefully expressing her Christian views and described the prosecution as “an egregious case of state censorship.”
Lutheran Bishop Juhana Pohjola, who published the booklet together with Räsänen and was also convicted in the case, has likewise been prevented from entering Britain after his ETA application was rejected in June.
After her authorization was canceled, Räsänen applied for a full U.K. visa and wrote directly to Mahmood seeking assistance. She said she had not received a response and did not expect one before the conference took place.
Räsänen, Pohjola and the Luther Foundation Finland, which were all convicted in March, have since brought their case before the European Court of Human Rights.
A physician and grandmother of 12, Räsänen faced nearly seven years of legal proceedings stemming from a 2019 social media post, comments made during a live radio debate and the church booklet. Pohjola and the Luther Foundation Finland were also defendants in the portion of the case involving the publication.
Finnish prosecutors charged Räsänen in 2021 with “agitation against a minority group,” using a provision of the country’s criminal code listed under “war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
Räsänen was unanimously acquitted of all charges by lower courts in 2022 and 2023, but prosecutors appealed the cases involving her social media post and booklet to Finland’s Supreme Court. The court heard arguments in October 2025 and issued a divided 3-2 ruling in March, leaving her acquittal intact over the Bible-verse post while convicting Räsänen, Pohjola and the Luther Foundation Finland in connection with the booklet. Prosecutors did not appeal the radio debate case, allowing that acquittal to stand.
Ahead of the Supreme Court ruling, the U.S. State Department criticized the prosecution, saying, “In a democracy, no one should face trial for peacefully sharing their beliefs,” and described the case against Räsänen as baseless. Following the verdict, the U.S. Embassy in Finland warned that criminal penalties for peaceful religious expression “sets a troubling precedent for religious freedom and freedom of expression.”
