Judgment reserved on CPS Quran burning appeal

Today was the latest hearing in the case of Hamit Coskun, who burned a Quran outside the Turkish Embassy in London. Last year, he had his conviction for religiously motivated harassment, alarm or distress overturned on appeal, but the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has taken the case to the High Court. The case was heard today. The judge has reserved judgment, and will deliver his decision at a later date.

The story so far

In February 2025, Hamit Coskun, a half-Kurdish and half-Armenian man from Turkey, burned a Quran outside the Turkish Embassy in London. He said he did it in protest against the President of Turkey for failing to uphold Turkey’s secular constitution. Notably, Coskun was attacked with a knife during his protest, and was taken to hospital before being arrested. Humanists UK regularly cautions that blasphemy-motivated extremism and violence are growing problems, and that such violence is inevitably encouraged when prohibitions on ‘blasphemy’ are legitimised by authorities.

Nonetheless, in June he was convicted of a public disorder offence, likely to cause harassment, alarm, or distress, that was motivated at least in part by hostility towards members of a religious group under section 31(1)(c) of the CDA, the religiously-aggravated version of section 5 of the POA. His actions were found to be motivated at least in part by hostility to Muslims based on comments he made in his police interview that were prejudicial towards Muslims. As a result, the judge found that the defendant had a ‘deep-seated’ hatred of not just Islam but also its followers, and that it was not possible to separate the two. We disagreed with that decision and were therefore pleased when his conviction was overturned on appeal in October 2025.

Humanists UK unequivocally condemns acts of religious hatred and harassment, and finds the defendant’s prejudicial views about Muslims expressed in the police interview to be abhorrent. Nevertheless, given that Coskun did not express these views publicly in relation to the incident, the charges against him raise serious concerns. In particular, we consider that, in an illustrative case of an ex-Muslim who may hold prejudicial views about their former community because of their experiences, may find themselves more liable to conviction in a case like this, even if those views are not publicly expressed.

A Humanists UK spokesperson said: 

‘We are extremely disappointed that CPS has continued to pursue this case. We hope the High Court will uphold his acquittal and settle this matter once and for all.’