A man who burned a Quran outside the Turkish consulate in London has won his latest court battle after the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) failed in a bid to overturn his acquittal at the High Court.
Hamit Coskun had been cleared of a religiously aggravated public order offence following a prolonged legal dispute stemming from the incident, during which he set fire to the Islamic holy book in public and was subsequently attacked by a knifeman at the scene.
Coskun was originally convicted but successfully appealed the ruling at Southwark Crown Court in October. The appeal decision was widely hailed by free speech campaigners as a significant test case.
The CPS sought to challenge that acquittal, but its attempt was rejected this week, bringing the latest phase of the case to a close.
In the run-up to the High Court decision, U.S. president Donald Trump had indicated he was prepared to offer Coskun asylum in the United States if the ruling had gone against him.
