Signatures of academics falsified on petition supporting Bátora

Some of the signatures on a petition in support of Ladislav Bátora, the chair of the “Akce D.O.S.T.” association who is currently deputy director of the cabinet of Czech Education Minister Josef Dobeš, have been falsified. Members of the academic community at Masaryk University have issued a statement to that effect which we publish in full below.

Statement by the staff of the Religious Studies Institute at Masaryk University

We have been warned by one of our students that the signatories to a petition in support of Mr Ladislav Bátora include several staff members of the Religious Studies Institute (Ústav religionistiky), specifically, those of assistant professor Václavík, Dr. Fujda, Dr. Chalupa, Dr. Zbíral and Dr. Valtrová. None of these people ever signed this petition and they all clearly distance themselves from their alleged signatures. Their names have been clearly misused for political aims with which they fundamentally disagree. The organizers of the petition have been contacted with the demand that the names of the staff members at the Religious Studies Institute be immediately removed from the list of signatories to the petition.