Finnish court acquits lawmaker in freedom of speech case

HELSINKI (AP) — A Finnish court has acquitted a Christian Democrat lawmaker and former interior minister of alleged incitement against gay people in a case considered an important precedent on the limits of freedom of speech in the Nordic country. The Helsinki District Court said in its ruling that some of the public statements by Paivi Rasanen, former leader of the small Christian Democratic Party, have been offensive to homosexuals but didn’t constitute hate speech and didn’t fall outside freedom of speech laws. In a trial that ended in February, Rasanen, who is a doctor well-known in Finland for her religious convictions and views against abortion and same -sex marriage, faced three separate counts of incitement against a minority group.