https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/04/its-time-the-west-admitted-free-speech-is-dead/
The Finnish police concluded that no crime had been committed, but the prosecutor-general decided to charge her anyway. In 2022, Räsänen went to court: three judges, no jury, no witnesses and not even a victim to say they took offence. The judges decided in Räsänen’s favour; the prosecutor, who won’t take no for an answer, simply brought the case back via appeal. The second trial wrapped up last week, and if Räsänen is found guilty, she could face jail.
According to Paul Coleman, the executive director of ADF International, a religious advocacy group that threw its weight behind Räsänen, the prosecutor opened by insisting that this case is not about theology: you can quote the Bible as much as you like, the issue is how you interpret it, and Räsänen had done so in such a way that caused harm.
it fits a pattern. Here in the UK, a street preacher was arrested in 2019; this year, a Tory councillor says he lost his job after tweeting that pride is a sin (indeed it’s the sin that led to Satan’s rebellion and humanity being cast out of Eden). A different Tory councillor, Anthony Stevens, tweeted his sympathy for these people – and was in turn arrested for an alleged hate crime. Stevens did not appear publicly to endorse the theology of either man; he was standing up for their right to express it. Not to be able to say something is bad enough. Not to be able to say that someone should be able to say something is surreal.
