Eleven writers, including JM Coetzee, have signed a letter of support for the dissident Czech writer Milan Kundera, who they say has been wrongly accused of denouncing a western spy to communist authorities:

An attempt has recently been made to stir up a defamatory campaign with the aim of sullying the reputation of Milan Kundera. He is accused of having denounced a western spy to the authorities in 1950, when he was a student in communist Czechoslovakia.

We note that Kundera has issued a categorical denial of these claims, and that a witness statement by an eminent Prague scientist clears him of any guilt. Too often, the press has spread this defamatory rumour without taking care to report the evidence refuting it.

This is nothing less than an effort to tarnish the reputation of one of our greatest living novelists on grounds that are, to say the least, dubious. We wish to express our outrage at this orchestrated slander and to affirm our solidarity with Milan Kundera.

John M Coetzee (Nobel prize)

Jean Daniel

Carlos Fuentes

Gabriel García Márquez (Nobel prize)

Nadine Gordimer (Nobel prize)

Juan Goytisolo

Pierre Mertens

Orhan Pamuk (Nobel prize)

Philip Roth

Salman Rushdie

Jorge Semprún