*J.K. Rowling and Elon Musk are mentioned in a criminal complaint filed with French authorities, alleging “cyber harassment” against Olympic champion Imane Khelif.
Variety reports that Nabil Boudi, the Paris-based attorney for the Algerian boxer, confirmed that the complaint, submitted to the Paris Prosecutor’s Office’s anti-online hatred center, targets users on X/Twitter and includes high-profile figures among those being investigated. The lawsuit, under French law, permits a comprehensive investigation into all potential offenders, including those operating under pseudonyms.
“On Aug. 13, (The National Center for the Fight Against Online Hatred) contacted the OCLCH (Central Office for the Fight Against Crimes Against Humanity and Hate Crimes) to conduct an investigation into the counts of cyber harassment due to gender, public insult because of gender, public incitement to discrimination and public insult because of origin,” the Paris Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement.
Per Variety, the lawsuit “ensure[s] that the ‘prosecution has all the latitude to be able to investigate against all people,” including X users who posted critical messages about Khelif under pseudonyms, said Boudi.
“J. K. Rowling and Elon Musk are named in the lawsuit, among others,” he said.
In a post to her 14.2 million followers, Rowling shared a photo from Khelif’s match against Italian boxer Angela Carini at the 2024 Paris Olympics, accusing Khelif of being a man who was “enjoying the distress of a woman he’s just punched in the head.”
Musk shared a post by swimmer Riley Gaines asserting that “men don’t belong in women’s sports.”
Boudi also noted that former president Donald Trump could be part of the investigation.
“Trump tweeted, so whether or not he is named in our lawsuit, he will inevitably be looked into as part of the prosecution,” he said.
Khelif, who won the gold medal in women’s 66-kilogram boxing at the 2024 Olympics in Paris, was at the center of a heated debate about the athlete’s gender eligibility. According to the liberal media and the International Olympic Committee, Khelif was born female but the boxer’s gender and masculine physique were called into question by many social media users and high-profile commentators.
Fellow boxer Joana Nwamerue has openly claimed that Khelif “is a man,” suggesting that the Algerian team attempted to explain Khelif’s gender by attributing it to environmental factors influencing chromosomes.
“[Khelif] has some kind of internal issues. But he is a man. I will stay [by] my words until he/she does a test to prove to the world that he/she is a WOMAN. But we all know that won’t happen,” Nwamerue, who fought Khelif, told Reduxx.
When Nwamerue met Khelif in Bulgaria, members of the Algerian National Team explained that Khelif had experienced biological changes from living at a high altitude.
“I think we played 3-4 sparring sessions. I have a record of everything. I can confirm that this is a man to me. Male power. Men’s techniques, everything,” Nwamerue explained.
“I’m a tomboy, I take a lot of hits and I know how to hold on. But the other girls are not so strong,” she added.
When questions about Khelif’s gender arose during Nwamerue’s training session, the Algerian National Team reportedly asserted that Khelif was a woman who had experienced biological changes due to living in the mountains.
“[Khelif’s] teammates came to me and told me ‘Imane is not a man. She is a woman and just lives high in the mountains with her relatives and parents and so there may be a change in her testosterone or chromosomes and the like,’” Nwamerue said. “So myself and my coach watched [Khelif] and I said ‘that can’t be possible.’ Everywhere has people living in the mountains. It’s absurd.”
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