French authorities on Tuesday opened an investigation into a complaint of aggravated cyberbullying filed by the Algerian boxer Imane Khelifa gold medallist at the 2024 Paris Olympics, has been the victim of a gender-based controversy, the French capital’s public prosecutor’s office said on Wednesday.
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France’s national service for combating online hate has opened an investigation into “cyberbullying based on gender, public insult based on gender, public provocation of discrimination and public insult based on origin,” the prosecutor’s office told AFP.
The investigation has been entrusted to the central office for combating crimes against humanity and hate crimes.
“Boxer Imane Khelif, who has just won the gold medal at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, has decided to fight a new battle: that of justice, dignity and honour,” her lawyer Nabil Boudi said in a statement on Saturday, announcing that he had filed the complaint the day before. The public prosecutor’s office confirmed on Monday that it had received the complaint.
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“The criminal investigation will determine who was behind this misogynistic, racist and sexist campaign, but it will also focus on those who fuelled this digital lynching,” the lawyer added.
Are you suing Musk and Rowling?
According to the American magazine Variety, the billionaire Elon Muskowner of the social network X (ex-Twitter) and the British writer J.K. Rowlingauthor of the Harry Potter saga, are named in the complaint filed with the authorities.
For the lawyer, “the unjust harassment suffered by the boxing champion will remain as the biggest stain on these Olympic Games.”
In her post, Rowling questions whether Khelif is “a man enjoying the anguish of a woman he has just hit on the head”and shows a photograph of the Algerian’s fight against the Italian Angela Carini.
Musk, the owner of X, posted a picture of swimmer Riley Gaines with the caption: “Men don’t belong in women’s sports.” He added the caption: “Absolutely!”
Khelif won the welterweight (-66kg) final at Roland Garros on Friday. After quietly competing in Tokyo 2020, Khelif was reluctantly embroiled in a gender-based controversy in Paris led by conservative circles, with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Boxing Federation (IBA) at odds over the issue. The controversy began last year, when Khelif and Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-Ting, also in the spotlight over the same issue, were disqualified from the women’s world championships in New Delhi in March 2023.
Imane Khelif has been boxing since she was 16 years old.
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According to the IBA, Khelif failed a test to determine her gender. The federation refused to specify what type of test she had undergone. The IOC maintains that the Algerian can compete in Olympic competitions in the women’s category. The controversy resurfaced in Paris when her opponent in the first round, the Italian Angela Carini, abandoned the fight in the first minute.
On social media, the Algerian boxer was the victim of a hate and misinformation campaign, which portrayed her as “a man who fights women.” “I am a strong woman with special powers. From the ring, I sent a message to those who were against me,” Khelif told the media after winning the gold.
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