Paris - A group of the world's leading cultural, intellectual and scientific figures, including Nobel prize-winners Bishop Desmond Tutu and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, yesterday issued a strong statement of support for President Clinton.
Describing Mr Kenneth Starr's methods as a danger to democracy, the petition signed by more than 60 celebrities said "a victory" over the independent counsel would be a victory for "the principles of freedom".
"For eight months the democratically elected President of a free nation has been subjected to inquisitorial harassment by a fanatical prosecutor with unlimited power," said the statement published in the French daily, Le Monde.
The petition was launched by writers William Styron, Carlos Fuentes and Gunter Grass, East Timor Nobel Peace prize-winner Bishop Jose Ramos Horta and French Nobel physics laureate Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, actors Gerard Depardieu, Vanessa Redgrave, Emma Thompson, Jeanne Moreau and Anthony Hopkins, as well as philosopher BernardHenri Levy.