An American academic Nathan Cofnas, earlier suspended over plagiarism allegations against Cambridge university’s youngest Black professor Jason Arday, has been banned from teaching for three months by the Ghent University authorities. 

Mr Cofnas was, however, allowed to continue his research work, according to The Guardian UK.

The Belgium-based institution confirmed that it imposed a disciplinary measure” on Mr Cofnas for three months under which they were “required to work remotely and may not carry out any teaching.”

It noted that the academic’s research activities were also “strictly limited to the research topics for which his appointment was made.”

Ghent University suspended Mr Cofnas amid investigation to determine if he discriminated against Mr Arday who died following intense plagiarism claims.

The U.S. ambassador to Belgium, Bill White, condemned the academic’s suspension as a deliberate attack on free speech, blaming bad-faith ideologues of trying to make polemical distortions of Mr Cofnas’ scholarship.

“Bad-faith idealogues will try to make this a referendum on the content of Cofnas’s scholarship – or polemical distortions of it. That’s wrong. Free speech means that controversial views are protected. And Cofnas’s views were known to Ghent University when he was hired,” Mr White stated.

Mr Cofnas, however, expressed gratitude to Rector Petra De Sutter for allowing him to stay at Ghent University. 

“I look forward to continuing to work on the project, “The Future of Liberalism,” for 60% of my working time for the remainder of my one-year postdoc.

“I wish to personally thank Ambassador @BillWhiteUSA. It was beyond my imagination that such a person would take an interest in the fate of a postdoc. The Ambassador responded with great support which helped to bring about a just outcome. Thank you, @USAmbToBelgium and @StateDept for defending American values. I am proud of my country,” the academic stated on X.