A man who was convicted of a religiously aggravated public order offence for burning a copy of the Koran outside the Turkish consulate in London has won his appeal, with the court overturning his conviction on Friday.

Hamit Coskun, 51, was fined 240 pounds ($325) at London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court in June after being convicted of an offence by shouting “Fuck Islam” as he held aloft the burning book near the consulate in central London in February.

The decision to overturn that verdict after an appeal at London’s Southwark Crown Court was hailed by his supporters as an important triumph for freedom of expression.

“Hamit Coskun’s protest was a lawful act of political dissent,” Stephen Evans, chief executive of the National Secular Society which supported his case, said in a st

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