The British Government rejected Päivi Räsänen’s Electronic Travel Authorization on July 12, 2026, blocking a layover at London Heathrow after her Finnish conviction for hate speech. Räsänen is a Finnish Member of Parliament and former Minister of the Interior. The denial landed Sunday.
The refusal rested on UK rules that require entry to be refused if an applicant has committed a criminal offense that caused "serious harm." The document was an ETA, not a long-stay visa. It covered a layover.
The move followed a March 26, 2026 ruling by the Finnish Supreme Court after a seven-year legal battle. Judges unanimously acquitted her over a 2019 tweet containing a Bible verse, but found her guilty 3–2 for a 2004 church pamphlet titled Male and Female He Created Them. The split was 3–2.
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The pamphlet count fell under a section of the Finnish Criminal Code titled "War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity," with Article 10 covering "agitation against a minority group." The label sounds wartime. It was not.
The judgment left her facing criminal fines, and free speech advocates, including ADF International, warn of a chilling effect when religious texts trigger criminal penalties. Räsänen remains a sitting MP. That warning has spread.
A Finnish conviction reached Heathrow
The State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor said on September 10, 2025:
"In a democracy, no one should face trial for peacefully sharing their beliefs. The case against Finnish MP Päivi Räsänen, which accuses her of hate speech for simply posting a Bible verse, is baseless, as two courts have unanimously found."
The bureau did not mention the UK refusal.
Räsänen’s case has already crossed national lines. On February 4, 2026, she testified before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee in a hearing titled Europe’s Threat to American Speech and Innovation. She warned that European censorship laws could affect Americans’ freedom to express faith online. The fight moved abroad too.
The court also ordered destruction of the 2004 pamphlet, Male and Female He Created Them. The order still stands.
