On Monday, 24 January began a trial with Päivi Räsänen, Christian member of Finland’s parliament who is a mother of five children and a grandmother of six.
She is facing unjust criminal charges and two years in prison or fine for sharing a Bible quote on Twitter, and defending marriage based on a union between one man and one woman.
On one of the hardest days of her life she expressed a sincere gratitude to all of you:
“I want to warmly thank those thousands of people that have supported me during this personally trying process.”
The session of the court lasted the whole day. Afterwards, Päivi told us:
“In all the charges, I deny any wrongdoing. My writings and statements under investigation are linked to the Bible's teachings on marriage, living as a man and a woman, as well as the Apostle Paul's teaching on homosexual acts. The teachings concerning marriage and sexuality in the Bible arise from love to one’s neighbor, not from hate towards a group of people.
The prosecution makes a number of false, inaccurate, even untrue allegations about my views. I categorically reject the Prosecutor’s characterization of my beliefs. I stress that I have repeatedly emphasized that all human beings are created in the image of God and have equal dignity and human rights.”
In September, some of us personally visited Helsinki and met Päivi to deliver around 200,000 signatures from all over the world. Last week, the total amount of signatures was over 330,000! We are very grateful for your involvement and support!
We also organized some events around the world to capture the Finnish Ambassadors’ attention last week.
In front of the building of the Helsinki District Court, there was a rally in support of Päivi. My colleague Sebastian Lukomski was there to personally express our full support to Päivi on behalf of the whole CitizenGO community.
On the opening day of Päivi Räsänen's trial, Matteo Fraioli, our Campaigns Director in Italy, organized a rally in front of the Finnish Embassy in Rome to send a message of solidarity: “Paivi’s trial will affect all of us: it is not just a woman, mother, grandmother, politician, and Christian doctor who will be on trial, but Christianity, common sense, freedom of expression, and religion. We are all on trial because #weareallPäiviRäsänen.”
Silvina Spataro, Campaigns Director of Argentina, organized a delivery of 330 000 signatures to the Finnish Embassy in Argentina.
Pawel Wolinski, Campaigns Director in Poland, who delivered the signatures to the Finnish Embassy in Warsaw emphasized:
“During the years of communism, Polish have repeatedly experienced persecution for their faith and will always defend all those persecuted for their religion.”
A Hungarian team led by Eszter Schittl initiated an amazing social-media campaign. During the weekend before her trial, hundreds of Hungarians joined the pro-free-speech, pro-Bible Facebook campaign in solidarity with Päivi by sharing their favorite Bible verses with their Facebook friends. By doing so, they showed that the Bible cannot and should never be silenced.
Right now, there is no final judgment. The proceedings will continue 14 February 2022.
Päivi counts on your support. If you have not signed the petition, do it now, please.