Misused signatures: At least four professors from KiM withdrew their names from petition supporting protests

Namely, as they state, these professors did not express their commitment to these protests in any way, and their signatures of alleged support appeared without consent.

The regular professor of the Faculty of Technical Sciences in Kosovska Mitrovica, Dr. Svetomir Milojević, was targeted by the fraud of the protest organizers, who, as in central Serbia, painted their actions with opposition colors.

"I withdrew my signature. They abused me, because they told me that it was all organized without politics, and when I realized that politics was involved in everything, I withdrew my signature," says Professor Milojević.

Professor Milojević, however, is not the only one. Srdjan Jović, a full professor at the Faculty of Technical Sciences in Kosovska Mitrovica, also had this situation, who says that his name was put on the list without his consent:

"Last night around 11 o'clock, I received a call from my assistant who said that I was on the list of petition signatories on the side of the student protest. I immediately contacted the right person, they did not answer me, and this morning I saw that they removed me from the list", he said and stated that he has a picture of a list on which his name was placed against his will.

As he points out, no one asked him if he wanted his name to be on that list, and he considers it a complete abuse.

"Nobody asked me anything," adds Professor Jović.

"I have my opinion and I post it on social networks, otherwise this is pure abuse".

Professor Petar Spalević from the same faculty states that everyone should stand behind their first and last name, but that the main thing when it comes to petition signatures is their verification.

"Given that this is in the domain of cyberspace, verification of unique signatures is required. And when it comes to the academic community, you can only be completely sure that it is a given person based on an academic email. That is the case when sending scientific papers, verification of voting on online voting, presence in some scientific databases... So you can only use your official email," the professor explains how the procedure should look like.

He points out that in this case there was obviously some misuse of data. He adds that in such situations there is no possibility of consultation.

"When you sign something, you can only sign it in your name. No one can consult you to buy a car, and inform you that you need to pay for the car. There is no possibility of consultation in signing. Signing is an action with consequences. Whether you get married, whether you make a purchase contract, whether you sign a petition, whether you enter into any obligation, moral, financial or other relationship. So, no one can consult you to sign for you. I was only informed that my name appeared. Any signing in someone else's name is abuse," he concludes.

Professor Dragan Lazarevic was also the target of misuse of signatures.

"They informed me a little while ago. I am not interested in it, nor does it occur to me to sign something like that. I am engaged in science and I have a lot of work. I don't know if someone did it on my behalf, this is the first time I have heard of it. Nor I'm interested in it, nor have I talked to anyone," stated Professor Lazarevic, who added that he will try to delete his name from the mentioned list.

"It's just terrible that something like that is happening," Professor Lazarevic concluded.