The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has lost a High Court bid to challenge the acquittal of a man who burned a Quran outside the Turkish consulate in London.

Hamit Coskun was initially convicted last June of a religiously aggravated public order offence after he held a flaming copy of the Islamic text aloft and shouted an expletive about Islam outside the Turkish embassy in February last year.

The 51-year-old successfully appealed against his conviction, having it overturned by Mr Justice Bennathan at Southwark Crown Court in October.

The CPS brought an appeal against that decision at the High Court and asked for it to be reconsidered.

Dismissing the appeal in a decision on Friday, Lord Justice Warby and Ms Justice Obi said: "We are not persuaded that the court left any material factor out of account or relied on any immaterial factor."

Reacting to the dismissal of the appeal, the Free Speech Union described it as a "humiliating defeat" for the CPS and called on the Director of Public Prosecutions to resign.

Lawyers for the CPS told a hearing earlier in February that Mr Justice Bennathan had been wrong to find that Coskun's behaviour was not "disorderly" and, if it was, was unlikely to cause harassment, alarm or distress.

Coskun, who has been provided accommodation by the Home Office since his protest because of threats made to him, resisted the legal challenge and attended the hearing in London.

After the ruling, Coskun said: "In England, I hoped that I would be free to speak about the damage of sectarian politics and Islamism.

"I am relieved that after a year, the courts have ruled that I am free to do so."

Comment: at last, a decision in favour of free speech.  Perhaps we could propose that we have an national quran Burning Day?