The athlete’s legal representative, Nabil Boudi, stated last week that Khelif, aged 25, had submitted a formal complaint regarding online harassment, describing it as a “pursuit of justice.”
A cyberbullying investigation has been launched by French
authorities in response to a complaint filed by Algerian Olympic boxing
champion Imane Khelif. The complaint stems from a gender-related controversy
that emerged during the Paris Olympic Games.
The incident has garnered significant attention beyond the
sporting arena, attracting the involvement of prominent figures such as
politicians and celebrities, including Donald Trump and Elon Musk.
The investigation, initiated on Tuesday, focuses on
allegations of “cyberharassment” associated with the high-profile gender
dispute that occurred during the Games.
The athlete’s lawyer Nabil Boudi said last week that Khelif,
25, had filed a complaint for online harassment, calling it 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 Central Office for Combating Crimes against Humanity and
Hate Crimes has been tasked with the investigation.
‘Born a woman’
According to US magazine Variety, billionaire entrepreneur
Musk and Harry Potter author JK Rowling have been named in the complaint.
Former US President Trump, who is the Republican party’s
nominee in the 2024 presidential race, would also be part of the investigation,
Variety said, citing the lawyer.
Khelif won the women’s 66kg final against China’s Yang Liu
in a unanimous points decision, having been the focus of intense scrutiny in
the French capital during the Olympics.
Together with Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, who won the 57kg women’s
final, Khelif was disqualified from last year’s world championships after they
failed gender eligibility testing.
However they were cleared to compete in Paris, setting the
stage for one of the biggest controversies of the Games.
The row in Paris erupted after Khelif won her bout against
Italy’s Angela Carini in just 46 seconds with two strong punches to the
Italian’s nose.
Trump said he would “keep men out of women’s sports” and his
running mate JD Vance described the bout as a “grown man pummelling a woman in
a boxing match”.
Rowling also weighed in, saying on X that the Paris Olympics
would be “forever tarnished by the brutal injustice done to Carini”.
The International Boxing Association’s Russian president and
Kremlin-linked oligarch, Umar Kremlev, has targeted both athletes, claiming
that Khelif and Lin had undergone “genetic testing that shows that these are
men”.
The IBA were responsible for the world championships in 2023
that Lin and Khelif were thrown out of, but the IOC cleared them to box in
Paris.
Khelif said she is “a woman like any other”.
“I was born a woman, lived a woman and competed as a woman,”
she told reporters about her eligibility.
“They hate me and I don’t know why,” she said of the IBA.
‘Defamation campaign’
Russia’s team has been banned from the Paris Olympics over
Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
On Monday, Khelif received a hero’s welcome at Algiers
airport, with crowds cheering the boxer with chants of “Tahia Imane” (Long live
Imane).
An editorial in government daily El Moudjahid praised
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.”
Asked if the International Olympic Committee was prepared to
consider reviewing the gender issue, its president Thomas Bach has said: “If
someone is presenting us 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.”