Christian Democratic Unionist MPs Gregory Campbell, Paul Girvan and Jim Shannon have tabled a motion in parliament in support of Päivi Räsänen, a Finnish member of parliament who's facing up to six years in prison for her beliefs on homosexuality. 

Räsänen, a former Finnish Minister of the Interior, is facing criminal charges for "hate speech" after she criticised the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Finland for participating in a local gay pride event in 2019 on social media. 

Her post also included a picture of Romans 1: 24-27, a verse that describes homosexuality as shameful. 

The Early Day Motion (EDM) expresses concern at the "at the potential implications" that the case could have for other countries and also highlights the "the range of non-Christian groups and individuals who have criticised the decision to prosecute."

According to the Parliament website, EDM's are usually used by MPs to show "support for a particular cause or point of view". 

The Three Christian MPs also acknowledged "Ms Räsänen's quoted and reported comments before the court case that she will not back down from her views and will not be intimidated into hiding her faith." 

The 62-year-old made the remarks earlier this week during an interview with ADF, her legal team. 

She said: "I will stand on what I believe and I will speak about these things and write about these things also in the future because they are a matter of conviction, not only an opinion."

The motion continued: "The more Christians keep silent on controversial themes, the narrower the space for freedom of speech gets." 

Räsänen will stand trial on 24th January.