US envoy to Belgium condemns suspension of academic in Jason Arday case

BRUSSELS - The US ambassador to Belgium has denounced the suspension of a US academic who led plagiarism accusations against Jason Arday, the black ex-Cambridge professor found dead on Aug 14 after resigning over the scandal.Bill White, posting on X on Aug 21, denounced the decision by the University of Ghent as an attempt to silence Nathan Cofnas, a self-defined “race realist” who was himself sacked from his Cambridge post two years ago.On Aug 20, Cofnas announced on X that Ghent had suspended him, adding: “They will almost certainly fire me.”Without naming Cofnas, the University of Ghent said in a statement it had launched a “preliminary disciplinary investigation” against a postdoctoral researcher embroiled in the furore, suspending him “as a precautionary measure”.In response to the su