Academic freedom defenders around the world are rallying around a renowned French political scientist and Arabist who was detained by police Tuesday after voicing “respect and appreciation” for the militant Palestinian resistance group Hamas.<\/p>\n
Fran\u00e7ois Burgat, the 75-year-old research director emeritus at the French National Center for Scientific Research, was taken into custody Tuesday morning in the southern city of Aix-en-Provence as part of an investigation into “apology for terrorism,” his lawyer Rafik Chekkat said<\/a> on social media.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Burgat was released after attending a hearing, during which he “responded honestly and referred to his researcher status and the books he has written” and the times “that he has spoken in the National Assembly, the Senate, and the Anti-Terrorism Court,” Chekkat told<\/a> the Turkish news agency Anadolu<\/em>.<\/p>\n A petition<\/a> circulating among academics and Palestine<\/a> defenders asserts that “Fran\u00e7ois Burgat is the latest target in a political campaign that aims at silencing pro-Palestinian voices in France and at equating explanation with justification, and analysis with incitement.”<\/p>\n “We express our solidarity with him and with others whom the French state has tried to silence by enforcing the November 13, 2014 terrorism laws<\/a>,” the petition adds.<\/p>\n We the undersigned express our solidarity with our colleague Fran\u00e7ois Burgat, emeritus senior researcher at the CNRS, who was detained by the French police on July 9, 2024. He was accused of apology for terrorism and taken into custody.https:\/\/t.co\/3qYfvXSlbK<\/a><\/p>\n — Anouk Essyad \ud83c\uddf5\ud83c\uddf8 (@AnoukEssyad) July 9, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n