A man who apparently burned a copy of the Qur’an in London and a man who allegedly attacked him with a knife were both charged with crimes on Saturday.
On Thursday, widely distributed footage on social media appeared to show a man who had seemingly burned a copy of the Islamic Qur’an outside the Turkish consulate in Knightsbridge being knocked to the ground and kicked and slashed at by a knife-wielding man.
“You fucking idiot. You don’t burn [the] Qur’an. This is my religion,” one of the men is apparently heard saying, according to LBC.
A third man was filmed approaching the pair, seemingly wearing a bag with the logo of the food delivery service Deliveroo.
Rather than helping the man on the ground, the apparent delivery driver was seen joining in on the attack and also kicking the man.
On Saturday, Hamit Coskun, 50, was charged with a religiously aggravated public order offence, the BBC reports.
While he was initially remanded to custody, after appearing at the Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Saturday, he was released on conditional bail after submitting a plea of not guilty through an interpreter. He will appear before the same court for a trial on May 28th.
Meanwhile, Moussa Kadri, 59, was also charged on Saturday with causing actual bodily harm and possession of an offensive weapon. According to ITV, he was released on bail and is set to appear before the same court on Monday.
Responding to the footage appearing to show one of its workers involved in the incident, Deliveroo told GB News: “We are very concerned by this footage and have launched an urgent investigation. If a rider is ever found to be behaving violently while working with us, we will cancel their account with immediate effect. We will support the police investigation however we can.”
