Judges have backed Hamit Coskun – convicted of a religiously aggravated public order offence after he burned a copy of the Quran outside the Turkish Consulate – and quashed the Crown Prosecution Service’s appeal against him. Coskun’s conviction was overturned in October – now the CPS’ appeal has been slapped down…
This prevents the introduction of what the Free Speech Union – supporting on the case – calls “a Muslim blasphemy law via the back door.” Atheist Coskun was considering fleeing to the US prior to today’s judgement…
Toby Young, general secretary of the FSU, said:
“This appeal should never have been brought by the Crown Prosecution Service, just as Hamit should never have been prosecuted. We have not had blasphemy laws in this country for 18 years and for that reason, this prosecution was bound to fail.”
Lord Justice Warby and Ms Justice Obi at the Royal Courts of Justice in London have slapped down the CPS. Liberal Britain still alive in some small corners…
Speaking to Adam Boulton on Times Radio about kicking the Golders Green suspect, Heidi Alexander said:
“I thought that if I was in the shoes of that police officer, then if I’m honest, given the situation, and the fact that he had a backpack on his back, and they were worried about whether that might go off, I could, if I was a police officer, frankly, I could see myself having taken similar action.”