Sir Keir Starmer has been dragged into a Koran-burning court case after it was revealed the Prime Minister had defended a protester who defaced the US flag in 2001.
Hamit Coskun, 50, will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court charged with disorderly behaviour likely to cause “harassment, alarm or distress” for setting a Koran alight.
He travelled to the Turkish consulate in London and was accused of setting fire to a Koran with a lighter before allegedly shouting “Islam is religion of terrorism”.
A video of the incident went viral after Coskun was attacked and the 50-year-old later claimed that two Iraqi men broke into his home in Derby and threatened him with an ashtray and a knife.
Hamit Coskun will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court
PA
Coskun insists he will enter a not-guilty plea and plans on burning Korans in other cities.
His lawyers claim that he has a human right to peacefully protest under Article 10 of the Convention on Human Rights, which Sir Keir Starmer successfully argued when he was a human rights barrister in 2001.
Starmer told the High Court: “Flag denigration is a form of protest activity renowned the world over.” He added that his client had the right to stage a “peaceful protest in a free and democratic society,” which the High Court agreed with.
