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The Trump administration is reportedly considering stepping into the legal battle surrounding a protester fined for setting a Quran ablaze outside the Turkish Consulate in London. This comes as U.K. prosecutors aim to reinstate a previously overturned conviction against him.
According to reports, discussions are underway about potentially offering asylum to 51-year-old Hamit Coskun in the United States, should the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) succeed in its appeal. A senior U.S. administration official shared with The Telegraph that this case is among several that have caught the administration’s attention.
Coskun, who hails from an Armenian-Kurdish background, initially sought refuge in the U.K. after fleeing Turkey. He claims that Islamic extremists in Turkey devastated his family’s life and that he was imprisoned for protesting against Islamist governance.
Expressing concern over the legal proceedings, Coskun has indicated he might consider relocating to the United States if the CPS’s High Court challenge is successful.
The incident in question occurred on February 13, 2025, when Coskun made his way to the Turkish Consulate in London and set a Quran on fire. During the protest, he shouted inflammatory slogans such as “Islam is [the] religion of terrorism” and “f— Islam.”
There he was attacked by Moussa Kadri, a passerby who chased him with a knife, kicked him and spat 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.