Finland's Supreme Court on Thursday convicted former interior minister and MP Paivi Rasanen for hate speech and fined her over her comments on LGBTQ people.
The ruling, which overturns the decisions of two lower courts, drew a strong reaction from US President Donald Trump's administration.
Rasanen, a member of the Christian Democrats, wrote a pamphlet in 2004 in which she said same-sex relationships "challenge the Christian idea of humanity".
In the text running to more than 20 pages, Rasanen called same-sex attraction a "psychosexual developmental disorder" and an "abnormality".
She said: "if homosexuality is a developmental disorder, practising it should not be encouraged."
The Supreme Court said parts of the text, published online in 2019 and 2020, "insult homosexuals as a group based on their sexual orientation".
Rasanen was fined 1,800 euros ($2,000), according to Finnish public broadcaster Yle.
In response, Riley Barnes, a top official in the US State Department, lashed out on X, arguing the conviction "shows the tragic state of religious freedom in the West".
"Holding Christian beliefs isn't a crime....The United States stands opposed to these ideological attacks against the Christian faith," Riley added.
Bishop Juhana Pohjola of the Luther Foundation Finland, a conservative Christian group that published the pamphlet online, was also fined and the foundation itself was fined 5,000 euros.
Rasanen had also been charged for a 2019 tweet where she criticised the Finnish Lutheran church for partnering with that year's Pride celebration, accusing the organisation of "elevating shame and sin to a subject of pride", but the Supreme Court dismissed the charge.
The case has received international attention, including among ultra-conservative Christian groups in the United States, and Rasanen testified about the case before the US Congress in February.
Rasanen said the decision came as a "shock" to her.
"I'm already giving serious consideration to appealing this to the European Court of Human Rights", she told a press conference.
Rasanen, who trained as a medical doctor, served as Finland's interior minister between 2011 and 2015 and the leader of her party between 2004 and 2015, during which time she voted Finland's current incitement law through parliament.
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