Man who burned Koran was attacked and spat at, court told

A man who burned a Koran outside the Turkish Consulate in central London was attacked and spat on by a man who told him not to do so because 'it's my religion', a court heard.
Hamit Coskun, 50, shouted 'f*** Islam', 'Islam is religion of terrorism' and 'Koran is burning' as he held the flaming Islamic text aloft outside the Turkish consulate in Rutland Gardens, Knightsbridge, London, on February 13, Westminster Magistrates' Court was told.
Coskun denies a religiously aggravated public order offence of using disorderly behaviour 'within the hearing or sight of a person likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress', motivated by 'hostility towards members of a religious group, namely followers of Islam', contrary to the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and the Public Order Act 1986.
He also pleaded not guilty to an alternative charge of using disorderly behaviour 'within the hearing or sight of a person likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress', contrary to section five of the Public Order Act 1986.
Further details of a subsequent attack on Coskun can now be reported after a judge dismissed a Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) attempt to impose a reporting restriction.
Turkey-born Coskun, who is half Kurdish and half Armenian, travelled from his home in the Midlands and set fire to the Koran at around 2pm, the court heard.
In footage captured on a mobile phone by a passerby that was shown to the court, a man approached and asked Coskun why he was burning a copy of the Koran.
Coskun can be heard making a reference to 'terrorist' and the man called the defendant 'a f****** idiot'.
The man approached him allegedly holding a knife or bladed article and appeared to slash out at him, the court heard.
The footage appeared to show Coskun back away and use the burning Koran to deflect the attacker, who is alleged to have slashed out at him again.
The man chased Coskun, and the defendant stumbled forward and fell to the ground, dropping the Koran, the footage showed.
Coskun was spat at and kicked by the man, the court heard.
The man said: 'Burning the Koran? It's my religion! You don't burn the Koran.'
Coskun sustained an injured finger and was taken to hospital, though it is not clear whether this was caused by the man's kicks, the court heard.
The unnamed man is subject to legal proceedings.
Katy Thorne KC, defending, said in her closing argument on Thursday: 'We would suggest that there is across history, and indeed now, many people who are hostile to other religions.'
Ms Thorne brought up the example of some feminists being hostile to Catholicism, saying it is a 'sacrosanct right that they are entitled to have and express'.
She added: 'However offensive Muslims may find the behaviour and beliefs of the defendant, he's entitled to have them, he's entitled to express them.'
Ms Thorne said that Coskun felt that he was not acting in a violent way or had been disorderly in front of anyone.
She added: 'He was calm, he was calmly with a raised voice saying 'Islam is the religion of terrorism' and then what happened was he was abused and violently attacked.'
Prosecutor Philip McGhee said Coskun's argument that he was using the right to protest was a 'shield' for a 'hostility' towards Islam.
Coskun had posted on social media that he was protesting against the 'Islamist government' of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who the defendant allegedly said 'has made Turkey a base for radical Islamists and is trying to establish a sharia regime', the prosecutor said.
The defendant, who is an atheist, believes that he protested peacefully and burning the Koran amounted to freedom of expression, the court heard.
Ahead of his trial, in a quote released through the Free Speech Union, he said: 'Encountering such treatment in a country like England, which I truly believed to be a place where freedom prevailed, was a real shock to me.'
His legal fees are being paid for by the Free Speech Union and the National Secular Society (NSS).
District Judge John McGarva will pass verdict at the same court on Monday.

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

The Sun

29 minutes ago

• The Sun

Moment protest chaos erupts as group behind RAF Brize Norton raid to be ‘BANNED like terror organisation'

POLICE have been spotted clashing with Palestine Action protesters at a demonstration today - as the group is set to be put on par with terror groups. Shocking footage showed officers tackling activists as violent scenes erupted at a protest on Trafalgar Square in central London this afternoon. 6 6 6 In one video posted online, a group of four cops can be seen attempting to wrestle a single protester to the ground. Other activists swarm around the officers as they struggle to take down the man. It comes as the Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced today she has decided to proscribe Palestine Action. She explained that she will lay an order before Parliament next week which, if passed, will make membership and support for the protest group illegal. The ban will see the organisation on par with Hamas, al-Qaeda and Islamic State. The decision was made after activists from the pro-Palestinian group broke into RAF Brize Norton last week. Footage shared online showed two members breaking into the base and vandalising two planes in a "grotesque" breach of security. They spray red paint into the rear of one of the jet's two engines and deep into the aircraft itself. The pair of activists can then be seen roaming free across the grounds of the airbase on electric scooters. Brize Norton is the RAF 's largest airbase and home to more than 6,000 military and civilian personnel as well as the UK's largest military aircraft. The MoD slammed the "vandalism of Royal Air Force assets" in a scathing statement. A spokeswoman for the ministry said: "Our armed forces represent the very best of Britain. "They put their lives on the line for us, and their display of duty, dedication and selfless personal sacrifice are an inspiration to us all. "It is our responsibility to support those who defend us." The shocking break-in at the Oxfordshire base prompted a security review at military bases across the UK. Hundreds commented under videos of the activists' efforts on social media, asking how security could be "that lacking" at a major military air base. 6 6 6

Telegraph

29 minutes ago

• Telegraph

An unprecedented eight fires in 10 weeks. Who or what is targeting Britain's electricity network?

It started late on the evening of March 20 when a bang broke the reassuring hum at the North Hyde electricity substation near Heathrow Airport. One of the plant's two 'supergrid' transformers – giant pieces of equipment that step down high voltage power so it can be used by nearby homes and businesses – had exploded and set itself on fire. The blaze spread swiftly through the compound, taking out a neighbouring unit that was still in operation. Within moments, a third back-up transformer also tripped off-line. In less than an hour, the conflagration caused cascading outages across the local network, severing power to 66,000 homes in the west London area – one of the UK's biggest non-weather related power cuts of the past decade. Vital cogs in the network, electrical substations shuttle electricity from power stations to the point of consumption. They vary in size, and are generally unmanned. Yet despite being just one of three supplying Heathrow, North Hyde also cut off vital power to parts of the airport, leaving it unable to guarantee the safety of its flying operations. Europe's busiest aviation hub was closed for more than a day, disrupting over 1,300 flights and almost 300,000 passengers, as well as costing the airlines an estimated £50-100 million in lost revenue. It was an eloquent demonstration of how a single point of failure could bring chaos to a crucial piece of the British economy. And, worse, it wasn't the first serious electricity substation fire in March; it was the third. Recent months have seen an epidemic of puzzling fires and failures across Britain's electricity network, as unexplained outbreaks have erupted from Exeter in the West Country to Glasgow in Scotland. In the James Bond films, 007's arch enemy Auric Goldfinger had a simple rule of thumb when it came to how many times seemingly innocent mishaps could recur before he perceived a more sinister pattern. 'Once is happenstance; twice coincidence; three times is enemy action,' he said. Britain's recent experience would certainly satisfy those criteria. There have been five more blazes since the Heathrow fire, making a total of eight in about 10 weeks between the beginning of March and mid-May. 'Normally you'd expect to see one or two fires every few years, not a whole bunch compressed into a couple of months,' says an electricity expert. Their frequency has even led some to speculate that the Bond baddie's aphorism might be right and someone is indeed out to get us. While being careful to point out there is no hard evidence to support it, Philip Ingram, a former colonel in British military intelligence, has suggested the attacks look like something 'straight out of the Russian military intelligence playbook'. Yet there's also an alternative domestic hypothesis that is no less disturbing. This argues that what we are witnessing is not the product of hostile outside action, but rather decades of shirked capital expenditure and reliance on increasingly antiquated equipment by bonus-hungry executives and financially-driven owners. In this version the enemy isn't some foreign baddie undermining our system, it may be the stewards of the network themselves. Growing number of fires The epidemic of blazes started on March 3 when a small substation in West Sussex caught fire, disrupting supplies to about 400 households in the Lancing area. According to the owner, UK Power Networks, a generator installed during repairs might have been tampered with. The fire was extinguished, the police were stumped. No one thought too much more about it. Then, 11 days later on March 15 a second substation blew up in Huddersfield, west Yorkshire, leaving a worker in hospital with serious burns, and cutting off 300 customers. The owner, Northern Powergrid, promised a health and safety investigation, which is still ongoing. Five days after that came North Hyde. Subsequent weeks saw no let up in the accidents. On March 23, fire erupted at a substation near Nottingham, cutting off power to 200 properties, and leaving the puzzled owner, National Grid, blaming 'third party damage'. On April 29, it was the turn of the Aberdeen Place substation in Maida Vale, west London, to erupt in a pillar of smoke and flame when a transformer exploded. While the blaze didn't cut off power supplies, it ignited some nearby flats, burning out four, and causing some 80 residents to be evacuated. Next came Glasgow where, on April 30, a substation caught fire in Taransay Street just behind the BAE warship yard in Govan, where the firm is building Type 26 frigates for the Royal Navy. Around 500 properties were cut off, including the yard itself. On this occasion two unnamed teenagers were arrested, who are due to appear in court this month on a charge Police Scotland said was connected to 'a wilful fire'. On May 11, witnesses reported a 'huge ball of flames' rising above a street close to Exeter city centre as another substation blew up, leaving 281 homes without power and requiring 25 people to be evacuated. And finally, the Aberdeen Place substation in Maida Vale caught fire again, this time in the high voltage section run by National Grid. The blaze caused what the owners described as a 'power blip', disrupting supplies to several underground lines. The worst affected – the Bakerloo Line – was out of operation for six hours. At Crocker's Folly, a Lebanese bar in Maida Vale, they are still grumbling about the fires at the substation; a blank brick building that faces the restaurant across the quiet leafy street, whose purpose is only signalled by the yellow 'Danger of Death' notices on its walls. In an adjoining compound, you can still see the fire-blackened equipment, and men in high-vis jackets buzz around, seemingly engaged in making repairs. 'It was a real pain for us because they closed the road off for days after the first one so we couldn't open for customers,' says one of the staff, who thinks the station's owners still owe residents a proper explanation after two blazes in as many weeks. Was there foul play or was the equipment faulty? There's been talk of something being set on fire and thrown into the compound on April 29. But UK Power Networks hasn't been drawn: it simply says that an investigation is ongoing. 'It's a bit worrying if it's just going to keep catching fire,' the waitress says. In fairness, the electricity companies have been no more forthcoming in other cases. For instance, after the Exeter explosion, which took place just round the corner from the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, National Grid spoke vaguely of 'third party damage' and promised an investigation, while after the Nottingham blaze, the company apologised for a 'small electrical fire', while thanking customers for 'bearing with us as our teams work to restore supplies as quickly and safely as possible'. Granted, there's an understandable reason for their reticence: Britain has around 57,000 large (33 kilovolt or over) substations spread across the transmission and distribution networks – out of a total of more than 500,000. These are all unmanned, defended only by CCTV and sensors, and hence vulnerable to vandalism or other malign interference. But at a time of tension between Russia and the UK, the resulting informational void has invited speculation about Kremlin-backed sabotage. Oleksandr Danylyuk is one who sees the hand of Moscow behind recent events. 'It has the feel of a well-organised conspiracy – checking out resilience and vulnerabilities and whether they elicit diplomatic protests,' he says. An associate fellow of Britain's Royal United Services Institute, and an expert on Russian 'multi-dimensional warfare' against the West, Danylyuk is not alone in worrying about Kremlin-sponsored aggression. Last November, MI6 chief Richard Moore said Russia was conducting a 'staggeringly reckless' sabotage campaign in Europe, while the head of MI5, Ken McCallum, accused the Kremlin of seeking to create 'sustained mayhem' on British streets. In a report published in March this year, a US think tank, the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, noted that the number of Russian attacks in Europe almost tripled last year to 34 known incidents, of which around a fifth were against critical infrastructure targets, such as electricity grids, undersea cables and energy pipelines. This doesn't mean the streets need to be swarming with Russian saboteurs, Danylyuk points out. The GRU, Russia's military intelligence unit, often recruits locals or non-Russians for the purposes of deniability. Late last year, two young British nationals, Dylan Earl, 20, and Jake Reeves, 23, pleaded guilty to setting a fire at a warehouse in east London on behalf of the Wagner Group, a Russian state-funded private military company that is seen as an arm of the Kremlin. Danylyuk also sees the official veil of silence as entirely consistent with a Russian hybrid campaign. (After the North Hyde blaze, the former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev even goaded the Government, saying he was 'looking forward to Russia being blamed for the Heathrow fire', and adding: 'What are you waiting for, Starmer?') Hybrid attacks on critical infrastructure fall uncomfortably close to the line of outright war, and politicians are consequently wary about reacting in case they inflame an already tense situation. 'There is no appetite in Western European governments to tell people about things such as sabotage when you are not really ready to do anything,' Danylyuk says. The main problem with the sabotage theory is a lack of hard evidence. While suspicions of vandalism hang over several of the fires, only in Glasgow has anyone been arrested. Elsewhere, the police have played down talk of organised sabotage. For instance, in the interim report into the still unexplained Heathrow incident by the National Energy System Operator (Neso), the state-run authority that controls the entire grid, the Met's counter terrorism unit was quoted as saying it 'found no evidence that the incident was suspicious in nature'. The final report is due by the end of June. There is also no sign of cyber attacks on substation control systems; the best way to shut down the entire facility and thus maximise the chaos from a single attack. Despite his earlier conjecture about foul play, Col Ingram is now wary of pointing the finger at Moscow, although he doesn't exclude its involvement. 'Experts I have spoken to with access to very sensitive areas say they have no evidence of anything untoward going down,' he says. Instead, he has come to believe the fires may be more a case of cock-up rather than foreign conspiracy. 'My primary view is that old infrastructure and poor maintenance – or the lack of maintenance – may be responsible for a lot of what we are seeing,' he observes. A perverse incentive Perhaps the most striking fact buried in Neso's interim report into the North Hyde fire was the sheer age of the equipment involved. The 275 kilovolt (kV) transformer blamed for the blaze was one of two installed when the substation was itself built in 1968, and manufactured by Hackbridge and Hewittic, a British brand name that disappeared in the early 1970s. Such venerable lifespans aren't out of the ordinary in British substations. Other vital devices such as circuit breakers (that cut off the power in the case of a fault) and switches (which route the current through the substation) also last for many decades. But transformers are a vital cog, enabling power to be stepped up to 400 kV so it can be transported over long distances without undue loss and then stepped back down to the 230 volts we use in our homes. Without them, the network simply couldn't function at all. A large part of the currently installed base was commissioned from the 1950s to the early 1970s – the last time Britain invested heavily in the network as it completed its electrification. Manufactured with a design life of around 40 years, these old transformers proved much more long-lived than expected. 'Basically, they were fantastically robust and once you had got them bedded in through the 1980s, the grid people really knew how to keep them running,' says one electrical engineer who formerly worked for National Grid. Then, in 1990, came a further incentive to eke out old equipment. The new privatised transmission and distribution ventures spun out of the Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB) and the boards found themselves in a world where regulators not only set prices; they determined how much companies could spend on replacing worn out electrical gear. Margaret Thatcher's administration had decreed the system should reward companies for being efficient, so if they could do it for less than the watchdog's capital expenditure (capex) 'allowance', they got to keep the difference. This new privatised system sliced up the network between transmission companies – responsible for running the 400 kV and 275 kV supergrids – and distribution companies (DNOs) that run wires to people's homes. Initially, most were listed on the stock market, but over the years, like much of British infrastructure, they were snapped up by specialist investors. For instance, UK Power Networks, the DNO that owns the Maida Vale substation, is owned by funds connected to Li Ka-shing, the Chinese billionaire, while Northern Powergrid belongs to Berkshire Hathaway, the investment vehicle of Warren Buffett. As one might expect, these financially-driven owners responded to the regulatory incentives. Over the past decade, they have generally underspent their allowances for replacing equipment, banking the extra income and helping to make electricity transmission and distribution business one of the highest margin sectors in the country. Between 2014 and 2021, for instance, transmission companies undershot their replacement capex allowance by 28 per cent, according to Ofgem data, while for DNOs between 2016 and 2023, the figure was 12 per cent. Recent analysis by Common Wealth, a Left-of-centre think tank, estimates they collectively spent just £1.5 billion annually last year on replacing equipment against an approved budget of £2 billion. Some see this system – which splits the resulting 'gains' between the companies and their customers – as a perverse incentive to skimp on capex. By setting broad rules which require companies to deliver outcomes such as network performance targets while letting them decide how (and if) to spend the allowance, Ofgem may think it is empowering companies to be more efficient. But insiders point to a culture of 'asset-sweating' that has left most substations with primitive analogue control systems, ancient concrete gantries, and a lack of modern monitoring gear designed to forestall outages. 'It's a systemic issue: the companies won't spend money on things that bring them no extra revenue, even if having those things would be good for the network as a whole,' says one, who thinks the lack of monitoring equipment contributed to the massive North Hyde outage. The result is an increasingly aged network. Of the roughly £70 billion (in 2023-24 prices) of assets on transmission company balance sheets, around £30 billion, or 40 per cent, dates from before 1975. This creates a creeping fragility. 'This old gear can't last forever,' says Mathew Lawrence of Common Wealth, adding that when companies are challenged about skimping on capex, they say: ''Ah, but we will catch up when it's really needed'. It's like a football manager who loses his first five games saying he'll win the next seven.' One nagging vulnerability lies in the oil that transformers use for insulation. A former CEGB engineer warns that any ingress of water can reduce the insulation properties and increase the risk of electricity arcing and fires. Such contamination inevitably becomes more likely with age. Another is that old plants often lack modern safety features, for instance the North Hyde plant had no concrete blast walls separating the transformers – something that has been required since the 1970s, but substation owners aren't required to retrofit. So when plants go bang, the damage will be worse. 'Dirty power' To many electricity insiders, it seems no less bizarre talking about the recent fires as an existential threat as it does about foreign sabotage. Not only does the system continue to function, there are no obvious signs of deterioration. In Neso's latest annual transmission review, for instance, so-called loss of supply incidents actually fell in number over the past five years, although the aggregate amount of electricity lost was greater. Typical is the view of Simon Gallagher of UK Networks Services, a consultant: 'The networks are performing better than they ever have.' But for all the upbeat talk, there is also a sense of foreboding. Until now, the network's assets have aged against a backdrop of declining usage, easing the pressure on hard-pressed substations. Britons consumed just 318 terawatt hours of electricity last year; 23 per cent less than the peak year of 2005. Now, as Keir Starmer's administration presses on towards net zero, usage should start shooting up again as sectors like motor transport and domestic heating shift from fossil fuels to electricity. Other power-hungry applications such as AI are coming too. By 2030, Neso anticipates demand will have grown by almost a third to 411 terawatt hours. The increment to supply that will be needed will come from renewables, such as wind and solar. These create other concerns, such as 'dirty power' – a phenomenon linked to intermittent renewable generation sources where, instead of operating at a stable 50 hertz, the power supply's frequency jumps around and becomes irregular. 'There is no escaping the fact that dirty power imposes a far greater burden on network equipment like transformers,' says one electricity expert. There are also concerns about demand spikes from electric vehicle charging putting old transformers, switchgear and cables under heavy strain. But the biggest worry is that an avalanche of equipment failures will expose the near impossibility of replacing old and broken kit. Years of thin orders have long killed off firms like Hackbridge and Hewittic, which built the transformers that burnt in the North Hyde fire. Now, despite a chronic shortage of such equipment, the few survivors have been slow to ramp up production, and Britain is years away from developing solid state transformers that are necessary, in the opinion of Martin Kuball, professor of physics at Bristol university, to create a grid that is safer and more resilient. The UK has just one plant making old style units – GE Vernova – based in Stafford. The average delivery time for a step-up transformer is currently around 200 weeks in the US. And that's before you get to the structural problem of finding the time slots and engineers to install the new equipment you might need. Given the need to keep power always running, access to the transmission and distribution networks is tightly controlled. So restricted are 'system access slots', during which the grid operator permits owners to take substations offline for maintenance and upgrades, and so sparse the ranks of highly skilled engineers to oversee them, that observers wonder how the network could ever deal with a bulge in maintenance – given all the upgrades that net zero will require. Could the recent transformer fires be an advance warning of a wider wave of failure? No one knows. 'It's hard to tell when equipment like this is going to start failing,' says Tim Stone, an infrastructure and energy expert. 'What I fear is that it could resemble Ernest Hemingway's description of going bankrupt in the way it happens – first slowly then suddenly.'

Daily Mail​

30 minutes ago

• Daily Mail​

BREAKING NEWS Palestine Action activists blocks streets and clash with police in Trafalgar Square demonstration - as government moves to ban group following RAF base protest

Palestine Action activists have clashed with police during a mass protest in London as the Government moves to proscribe the group under terrorism law. Hundreds of activists waving Palestinian flags and holding placards gathered at Trafalgar Square today. Protesters were seen scuffling with police, with officers forced to drag activists out of the crowds. The Palestine Action protest comes just days after two of its members broke into RAF Brize Norton and damaged two military planes in a stunt condemned by MPs including Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has she has decided to proscribe Palestine Action and will lay an order before Parliament next week which, if passed, will make membership and support for the protest group illegal. The proscription of Palestine Action puts the group on a par with Hamas, al-Qaeda or ISIS under British law, banning anyone from promoting the group, arranging meetings or carrying its logo in public. Those breaching the rules could face up to 14 years in jail. The Home Secretary confirmed she is launching the process that will make it a criminal offence to belong to or support the group. She said the government 'will not tolerate those that put that security at risk'. 'I have decided to proscribe Palestine Action under section 3 of the Terrorism Act 2000. A draft proscription order will be laid in Parliament on Monday 30 June. If passed, it will make it illegal to be a member of, or invite support for, Palestine Action. 'This decision is specific to Palestine Action and does not affect lawful protest groups and other organisations campaigning on issues around Palestine or the Middle East. 'The disgraceful attack on Brize Norton in the early hours of the morning on Friday 20 June is the latest in a long history of unacceptable criminal damage committed by Palestine Action.' Ms Cooper added: 'Since its inception in 2020, Palestine Action has orchestrated a nationwide campaign of direct criminal action against businesses and institutions, including key national infrastructure and defence firms that provide services and supplies to support Ukraine, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), 'Five Eyes' allies and the UK defence enterprise. 'Its activity has increased in frequency and severity since the start of 2024 and its methods have become more aggressive, with its members demonstrating a willingness to use violence. 'Palestine Action has also broadened its targets from the defence industry to include financial firms, charities, universities and government buildings. Its activities meet the threshold set out in the statutory tests established under the Terrorism Act 2000. 'This has been assessed through a robust evidence-based process, by a wide range of experts from across government, the police and the Security Services.' Ms Cooper said that the group had caused damage 'running into the millions of pounds'. In several attacks, Palestine Action has committed acts of serious damage to property with the aim of progressing its political cause and influencing the Government. These include attacks at Thales in Glasgow in 2022; and last year at Instro Precision in Kent and Elbit Systems UK in Bristol. The seriousness of these attacks includes the extent and nature of damage caused, including to targets affecting UK national security, and the impact on innocent members of the public fleeing for safety and subjected to violence. The extent of damage across these three attacks alone, spreading the length and breadth of the UK, runs into the millions of pounds.