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The Trump administration is considering getting involved in the case of a protester who was fined for burning a Quran outside the Turkish consulate in London, as UK prosecutors seek to reinstate his overturned conviction, according to reports.
Officials are said to be discussing granting refugee status to Hamit Coskun, 51, if the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) wins his appeal, and a senior US administration official told The Telegraph the case is one of several “that the administration has taken note of”.
Coskun, of Armenian-Kurdish descent, had initially sought asylum in the UK from Turkey, where he says Islamic extremists “destroyed” his family's life and where he was jailed for protesting against the Islamist government.
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Hamit Coskun has said he could “flight” to the United States if the Crown Prosecution Service is successful in its High Court challenge. (Aaron Chown/PA Images via Getty Images)
On February 13, 2025, he traveled to the Turkish consulate in London and set fire to a copy of the Quran while shouting slogans including “Islam is [the] religion of terrorism” and “f— Islam.”
There he was attacked by Moussa Kadri, a passer-by who chased him with a knife, kicked him and spat at him.
Kadri was subsequently given a suspended prison sentence after being found guilty of assault and having a sharp article in a public place.
Initially accused of harassing the “religious institution of Islam”, Coskun's case prompted the intervention of the National Secular Society and the Union for Freedom of Expression, who argued that prosecutors were effectively reviving blasphemy laws already abolished in 2008.
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Coskun was found guilty 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 “hopelessly disturbing and offensive” to many Muslims, the right to free expression “must include the right to express opinions that offend, shock or disturb.”
The CPS is now seeking to overturn that decision at the High Court in London, and Coskun told The Telegraph that if the appeal goes against him, he could be forced to “flee” the country.
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At the 2025 Munich Security Conference, Vice President JD Vance said that “in Britain and across Europe, I fear freedom of speech is in retreat.” (Matthias Schrader/AP Photo)
“For me, as a victim of Islamic terrorism, I cannot remain silent. I could be forced to flee the United Kingdom and move to the United States, where President Trump has defended freedom of expression and against Islamic extremism,” he told the outlet.
“If I have to do it, then, for me, the UK will have effectively fallen to Islamism and the codes of speech it wishes to impose on the non-Muslim world,” he added.
President Donald Trump and the US administration have already criticized the UK and European governments for increasing restrictions on speech.
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In 2025, Trump criticized the UK's laws on online speech, saying that “strange things are happening” there and that it was “not a good thing.”
At the 2025 Munich Security Conference, Vice President JD Vance also said: “I fear that in Britain and across Europe freedom of expression is in retreat.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to the State Department for comment.
