Miroslav Šeparović, president of the Constitutional Court of Croatia, has filed criminal complaints against all five members of the national Committee on Ethics in Science and Higher Education (CESHE).

The committee examined the judge’s 2013 doctoral thesis and found it full of “incomplete and opaque citations” of other people’s work.

Judge Šeparović told Science magazine that he is suing the CESHE members as a private citizen for misusing their positions and overstepping their jurisdiction, which his court limited last year.

He said he “had no alternative” but to “protect my right to honour and reputation”.