Bosnian Petition Defends Professor Over Assault Claims

A Bosnian website, Prometej, launched an online petition last Friday in support of Enver Kazaz, a professor well known for his sharp criticism of Bosnia's main Bosniak main party, who said he was assaulted earlier this month.

"This attack is more than just an attack on Professor Kazaz and a violation of his right on freedom of speech, but a serious public issue if we do not react and raise our voice," the organizers of the petition said.

Some of the most prominent names in Bosnia have signed it already, as have some names from abroad.

"I am proud and thankful to those who signed petition so far since, under the current situation, this is all we can do to show to them that we are not afraid," Kazaz told BIRN.

The well-known college professor said he was assaulted on March 8 at the Faculty of Philosophy in Sarajevo.

In a column published on Prometej last week, he accused the editor of the magazine Stav, Mahir Sokolija, of attacking him.

Sokolija did not answer BIRN's inquiries about the allegation.

However, Kazaz said it formed part of a wider campaign against him, and that he had been a victim of threats on social media and different type of insults for a long time just because he publicly criticizes the Party of Democratic Action, SDA, and its leader, Bakir Izetbegovic.

"Someone can agree or disagree with Professor Kazaz but we all must stand together against any violence because tomorrow some of us could also be a victim, just because we have an opinion," Ivana Maric, a Sarajevo political analyst, who signed the petition, told BIRN.

She said that in an election year in Bosnia there was a distinct risk that similar attacks might happen and that citizens must show their solidarity with those who risk...