France has initiated a cyberbullying investigation after Algerian Olympic boxing champion Imane Khelif filed a complaint, following her involvement in a gender controversy at the Paris Olympic Games, prosecutors announced on Wednesday.
The controversy has quickly escalated beyond the boxing world, drawing attention from politicians and celebrities, including Donald Trump and Elon Musk.
The Paris public prosecutor’s office informed AFP that an investigation into “cyberharassment” was launched on Tuesday, following the widely-publicized gender controversy at the Games.
Last week, the athlete’s lawyer, Nabil Boudi, announced that 25-year-old Khelif had filed a complaint for online harassment, describing it as a “fight for justice.”
“The investigation will determine who was behind this misogynist, racist and sexist campaign, but will also have to concern itself with those who fed the online lynching,” he said at the time.
The investigation has been assigned to the Central Office for Combating Crimes against Humanity and Hate Crimes.
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‘Competed As a woman’
According to U.S. magazine Variety, billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk and *Harry Potter* author J.K. Rowling have been named in the complaint. Former U.S. President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee in the 2024 presidential race, is also reportedly included in the investigation, as cited by the lawyer.
Khelif secured victory in the women’s 66kg final against China’s Yang Liu with a unanimous points decision, after being the subject of intense scrutiny in Paris during the Olympics.
Along with Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, who won the women’s 57kg final, Khelif was disqualified from last year’s world championships after failing gender eligibility tests. However, they were later cleared to compete in Paris, sparking one of the Games’ most significant controversies.
The controversy in Paris flared up after Khelif defeated Italy’s Angela Carini in just 46 seconds, delivering two powerful punches to her opponent’s nose.
Trump stated he would “keep men out of women’s sports,” while his running mate JD Vance described the bout as “a grown man pummelling a woman in a boxing match.”
Rowling also commented, stating on X that the Paris Olympics would be “forever tarnished by the brutal injustice done to Carini.”
Umar Kremlev, the Russian president of the International Boxing Association and a Kremlin-linked oligarch, has targeted both athletes, asserting that Khelif and Lin underwent “genetic testing that shows that these are men.”
The IBA, which managed the world championships in 2023 from which Lin and Khelif were disqualified, was involved in the controversy, but the IOC permitted them to compete in Paris.
Khelif responded that she is, “a woman like any other.” She explained to reporters, “I was born a woman, lived a woman and competed as a woman,” regarding her eligibility.
“They hate me and I don’t know why,” she said of the IBA.
Defamation
Russia’s team has been barred from the Paris Olympics due to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
On Monday, Khelif was greeted with a hero’s welcome at Algiers airport, where crowds cheered her with chants of “Tahia Imane” (Long live Imane).
An editorial in the government newspaper El Moudjahid commended Khelif.
“Imane’s victory is also a victory for the oppressed and the excluded, but above all, it is a victory for the law, which for too long has been trampled by the logic of the powerful, who are greedy for domination and adept at double-standard policies.”
When asked if the International Olympic Committee would consider revisiting the gender issue, its president Thomas Bach responded: “If someone is presenting us with a scientifically solid system how to identify men and women, we are the first ones to do it.”
“But what is not possible that someone is saying this is not a woman just by looking at somebody or by falling prey to a defamation campaign by a not credible organisation with highly political interest.”
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