White House set to accept Koran burner as refugee

The Trump administration is in talks to accept a man who burnt a Koran as a refugee from Britain.

State department officials are preparing to help Hamit Coskun flee the UK if he loses a “blasphemy case” this week.

The potential intervention is likely to escalate transatlantic tensions over free speech, which critics have claimed is being eroded under Sir Keir Starmer’s Government.

Mr Coskun overturned a conviction for a religiously aggravated public order offence after he burnt the Koran outside the Turkish embassy in London.

However, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is contesting that decision at a hearing in the High Court on Tuesday. A senior US administration official said his case was “one of several cases the administration has made note of”.

Mr Coskun sought asylum in the UK from his home country of Turkey, saying Islamic terrorists had destroyed his family’s life. He told The Telegraph that, if he did lose his case, he may be forced “to flee” and seek protection in the US.

“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 said. “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. . . I came to England because I believed that, unlike in Turkey, I would be free to speak out and protest the dangers of radical Islam. But I found that in England, speech is no longer free.”

At his trial, lawyers for the CPS insisted that Mr Coskun was not being prosecuted for setting fire to the Koran. Instead, they claimed, he was being prosecuted for “disorderly behaviour in public”. Mr Coskun was convicted of a religiously aggravated public order offence and fined £240. When I left the Ministry of Justice in 2008 the CPS was already well represented by ethnic minorities; I suspect they are now a majority.

At Southwark Crown Court in October, however, that conviction was overturned.

Mr Justice Bennathan said that while burning a Koran might be something “many Muslims find desperately upsetting and offensive”, the right to freedom of expression “must include the right to express views that offend, shock or disturb”.

Lord Young of Acton, the general secretary of the Free Speech Union, said if Mr Coskun lost his appeal it would mark the death of free speech in Britain. “You’ve heard of the heckler’s veto. This will create a stabber’s veto. It will sound the death knell for free speech in Britain.”

Mr Coskun’s case is one of several being watched closely by senior officials in the US administration, which has discussed granting the 51-year-old refugee status should he apply. From there, he can apply for political asylum.

The rift over free speech burst into the open in February last year, when JD Vance, the vice-president, delivered a blistering speech at the Munich Security Conference. The vice-president declared that free speech in Britain was “in retreat” while questioning whether Europe still shared America’s values.

Earlier this month, Sarah Rogers, the under-secretary of state for public diplomacy, told The Telegraph that Britons prosecuted over their speech may apply for refugee protection in America.

Sir Keir’s attempts to strike a trade deal with the US were almost stifled earlier this year over the case of Livia Tossici-Bolt, who was prosecuted for holding a sign near a Bournemouth abortion clinic reading: “Here to talk if you want.”

A report found earlier this month that Labour has undermined free speech and democracy in Britain through its use of surveillance, what it called “repressive anti-protest laws” and anti-terrorism legislation. Human Rights Watch said the measures had eroded freedom of expression, assembly and association.

Mr Coskun, who is an atheist, accused Sir Keir of making a “political calculation” that he needs to “secure the Muslim vote” before the next general election.

The Telegraph revealed this weekend that ministers are to delay publication of a controversial Islamophobia definition until after the looming by-election in Gorton and Denton, which has a significant Muslim population, because they are “worried about the Muslim fallout”.