Victory for man who burnt Koran outside Turkish consulate as acquittal stands after CPS lose High Court appeal
Hamit Coskun was initially convicted last June of a religiously aggravated public order offence after he held a flaming copy of the Islamic text aloft and shouted “f*** Islam” outside the Turkish embassy on February 13 last year
The Crown Prosecution Service has lost a High Court bid to challenge the acquittal of a man who burned a Koran outside the Turkish consulate in London.
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Hamit Coskun was initially convicted last June of a religiously aggravated public order offence after he held a flaming copy of the Islamic text aloft and shouted “f*** Islam” outside the Turkish embassy on February 13 last year.
The 51-year-old successfully appealed against his conviction, having it overturned by Mr Justice Bennathan at Southwark Crown Court in October.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) brought an appeal against that decision at the High Court and asked for it to be reconsidered.
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But dismissing the appeal in a decision on Friday, Lord Justice Warby and Ms Justice Obi said “We are not persuaded that the court left any material factor out of account or relied on any immaterial factor.”
Lawyers for the CPS told a hearing earlier in February that the judge was wrong to find that Mr Coskun’s behaviour was not “disorderly” and, if it was, was unlikely to cause harassment, alarm or distress.
Mr Coskun, who has been provided accommodation by the Home Office since his protest because of threats made to him, resisted the legal challenge and attended the hearing in London.
A Crown Prosecution Service spokesperson said: “There is no law to prosecute people for ‘blasphemy’ and burning a religious text on its own is not a criminal act – our case was always that Hamit Coskun’s words, choice of location and burning of the Qu’ran amounted to disorderly behaviour, and that at the time he demonstrated hostility towards a religious group.
“The High Court has made a ruling we will review its decision carefully.”
Stephen Evans, chief executive of the National Secular Society, said after the decision: “The High Court has rightly rejected this wrongheaded attempt to introduce a blasphemy law by the back door.
“However offensive some may have found the Koran-burning protest, it was lawful.
“Criminal law protects people from harm, not from being offended.
“This judgment makes clear that it is not the state’s job to police religious sensibilities. A hostile – even violent – reaction to speech cannot be allowed to determine whether that speech is criminal.
“There must now be a serious review of how and why the CPS originally came to charge a man with causing harassment, alarm and distress to the religion of Islam, and why it chose to pursue this case to the High Court.
“Public confidence demands answers.”