The Trump administration is reportedly considering getting involved in the case of a protester who was penalized for torching a Quran outside the Turkish Consulate in London. This comes as U.K. prosecutors seek to reinstate his overturned conviction, according to various sources.
Discussions among U.S. officials may lead to granting refugee status to 51-year-old Hamit Coskun if the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) wins its appeal. A senior official from the U.S. administration told The Telegraph that Coskun’s situation is among several cases that have caught the administration’s attention.
Coskun, who is of Armenian-Kurdish heritage, initially sought asylum in the U.K. after fleeing Turkey. He claims that Islamic extremists devastated his family’s life and that he was imprisoned for opposing Islamist governance in his home country.
Faced with the possibility of the CPS succeeding in its High Court appeal, Coskun has expressed that he might “flee” to the United States for refuge. The case has garnered significant media attention. (Aaron Chown/PA Images via Getty Images)
On February 13, 2025, Coskun went to the Turkish Consulate in London, where he burned a copy of the Quran while shouting inflammatory slogans such as “Islam is the religion of terrorism” and “f— Islam.”
During the incident, Moussa Kadri, a bystander, attacked Coskun by chasing him with a knife, kicking him, and spitting on him.
Kadri later received a suspended prison sentence after being convicted of assault and having a bladed article in a public place.
Initially charged with harassing the “religious institution of Islam,” Coskun’s case drew intervention from the National Secular Society and the Free Speech Union, who argued prosecutors were effectively reviving blasphemy laws already abolished in 2008.
Coskun was convicted of a religiously aggravated public order offense and fined in June 2025.
That October, Coskun’s conviction was overturned when a judge ruled that while burning a Quran was “desperately upsetting and offensive” to many Muslims, the right to free expression “must include the right to express views that offend, shock or disturb.”
The CPS is now seeking to reverse that decision at London’s High Court, with Coskun telling The Telegraph that if the appeal goes against him, he may be forced “to flee” the country.
At the 2025 Munich Security Conference, Vice President JD Vance said “in Britain and across Europe, free speech, I fear, is in retreat.” (Matthias Schrader/AP Photo)
“For me, as the victim of Islamic terrorism, I cannot remain silent. I may be forced to flee the UK and move to the USA, where President Trump has stood for free speech and against Islamic extremism,” he told the outlet.
“If I have to do so, then, to me, the UK will have effectively fallen to Islamism and the speech codes that it wishes to impose on the non-Muslim world,” he added.
President Donald Trump and the U.S. administration have already criticized the U.K. and European governments over increased restrictions on expression.
In 2025, Trump slammed the U.K.’s laws around online speech, saying “strange things are happening” there and that it was “not a good thing.”
At the Munich Security Conference in 2025, Vice President JD Vance also said, “In Britain and across Europe, free speech, I fear, is in retreat.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to the Department of State for comment.
