A man who had burned a copy of the Koran in February before the Turkey Consulate in London was sentenced to British justice on Monday to a fine of 240 pounds (284 euros). Hamit Coskun, 50, a Turkish national, was found guilty of public disorder with the aggravating circumstance of religious hatred.
On February 13, this man residing in the midlands (center of England) went around the Turkey consulate in London where he had set fire to a copy of the Koran, while shouting “Fuck Islam” or “Islam is the religion of terrorism”.
“An eminently provocative act”
“Your act of burning the Koran where you did was eminently provocative,” said judge John McGarva, of the Westminster court in London during the verdict statement. He added that the comments made by the defendant were “motivated at least partly by hatred towards the faithful” Muslims.
Hamit Coskun was sentenced to a fine of 240 pounds (284 euros) with a legal increase of 96 pounds (113 euros). During the trial, the prosecutor insisted that the defendant was not prosecuted for burning the Koran but for having caused a public order.
He denounces Erdogan’s “Islamist government”
According to a video broadcast at the hearing, filmed by a passer -by at the time of the facts, a man armed with a sharp object, approached the accused, which he had hunted and then struck.
Hamit Coskun, who says he is an atheist, explained that he had done this way to denounce the “Islamist government” of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. After the statement of his sentence, he denounced “an attack on freedom of expression”.
Associations for freedom of expression have financed its defense
Its legal costs were covered by two associations which defend freedom of expression, the Free Speech Union (FSU) and the National Secular Society.
They believe that this sentence is akin to a conviction for “blasphemy”, an offense abolished in 2008 in England and in the land of Wales.
“Everyone should be able to exercise their right to demonstrate peacefully and freedom of expression, it doesn’t matter if that can offend or shock certain people,” wrote the FSU on the social network X after the verdict.
“Would I have been prosecuted if I had set fire” to a Bible?
In a statement published by the FSU, Hamit Coskun said that his condemnation constituted “an attack on freedom of expression”.
“Christian laws on blasphemy have been repealed in this country over 15 years ago and it is not normal to prosecute someone for blaspheme Islam. Would I have been prosecuted if I had set fire to a copy of the Bible in front of the Westminster Abbey? I doubt it, ”he added.
