More than 600 World Professors, Scholars Condemn Police Brutality in Novi Sad

Protest rally in Novi Sad (BetaPhoto/Katarina Redzic)

More than 600 university professors, researchers and scholars from around the world have signed the petition condemning, in the words of the initiators, police repression and brutality at the campus of the University in Novi Sad.

The petition on the escalation of violence during August and September has been launched by the Free University network, sending it to the relevant international institutions and the public. The petition includes a reminder that the collapse of the university’s autonomy began on Aug. 26, when the dean of the Faculty of Philosophy expelled the students from the building and called the police.

After that, the police entered the campus and then “the police units used excessive force against peaceful students, teachers and citizens on several occasions, with the repression culminating on Sept. 5, when around 20,000 people were on the campus,” the university has stated, adding that the police also used the toxic CN gas on Sept. 5.

Furthermore, the police inflicted numerous injuries on those present, prevented medical teams from providing aid and then forcefully entered the building of the Rectorate, where they stayed until the start of October, stated the Free University. “Bringing police to the university campus and the faculty building, and exposing students and citizens to police brutality, represents the most flagrant violation of the autonomy and basic principles of higher education: preservation of academic integrity, honoring humanist and democratic values, human rights and civil liberties,” the petition reads.