Turkish Man Who Burned Qur'an in London Is Convicted of Killing His Wife

JAKARTA - Hamit Coskun, 51, a Turkish man in the London Quran burning case who was sentenced to freedom by the British Court, was actually convicted after being found guilty of killing his wife.

Coskun was arrested in February 2025 after burning copies of the Quran in front of the Turkish embassy in London. He was charged and sentenced on June 2, 2025, with an additional sentence for disorderly behavior aggravated by religious motives.

However, the sentence was overturned after an appeal filed by Coskun was accepted by the court in October 2025. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which did not accept Coskun's release, then lost at the High Court level in January 2026.

After his release, Coskun told the Daily Telegraph that the High Court had "repaid the Islamisation of Britain".

"I am now free to continue my campaign against the rising tide of Islamisation, both in Britain and Europe - and that may include burning copies of the Koran again," he continued.

Coskun's release was celebrated by free speech groups, including those funding Coskun's appeal, former British minister from the Conservatives crossing to the anti-immigration Reform Party, Robert Jenrick; leading Conservative MPs Chris Phelp and Nick Timothy.

Jenrick, who was seen leaving court with Coskun after his appeal succeeded in October, wrote on X: "The right decision. I support Hamit Coskun because, although I don't agree with the burning of the Quran, it should never have been a crime."

According to a Turkish court file seen by Middle East Eye (MEE), Coskun was actually convicted of a murder case.

Coskun, who is half Kurdish and half Armenian, was found guilty of the premeditated murder of Vesia Coskun, who was his legal wife in September 2002.

In this case, Coskun spent almost seven years of his initial sentence of 16 years in prison. He was released on parole on July 2, 2009.

Although the file seen by MEE appears to confirm the sentence, Coskun vehemently denied his involvement in his wife's death. He said that his wife died of asthma in a different year and the documents must have been falsified or referred to someone else.

A lawyer who reviewed the case file in the Istanbul Bakirkoy criminal court confirmed that the file related to Coskun seen by MEE was the same as that kept in the court's archives.

Coskun's date of birth in the Turkish document is also the same as that recorded in the British court records.

MEE has also identified a Turkish newspaper report on the case dated September 26, 2002, the same day Coskun was arrested in connection with his wife's murder.

According to court documents, Coskun was tried in the Bakirkoy Istanbul criminal court where he was accused of strangling Vesia Coskun to death on September 25, 2002.

Coskun is alleged to have killed him "by putting his hand on his neck" in a fight at a house in Istanbul's Ikitelli district before turning himself in at a police station.

Coskun and the victim are known to have been married since 1993. According to the indictment against him, Coskun confessed to the murder and expressed his regret.

Files seen by MME also show Coskun was separately sentenced to five years in prison by an Izmir criminal court for his alleged membership of an illegal armed group.