PARIS — French prosecutors opened an investigation into an online harassment complaint made by Olympic boxing champion Imane Khelif after a rain of criticism and false claims about sex during the , the Paris prosecutor’s office said Monday.
The athlete’s lawyer Nabil Boudi with a special unit in the Paris prosecutor’s office that combats online hate speech on Friday.
Boudi said that the boxer was targeted by a “misogynist, racist and sexist campaign” as she in the women’s welterweight division, becoming a and bringing global .
The prosecutor’s office said it had received the complaint and its Office for the Fight against Crimes against Humanity and Hate Crime had opened an investigation on charges of “cyber harassment based on gender, public insults based on gender, public incitement to discrimination and public insults on the basis of origin.”
Khelif was unwillingly thrust into a worldwide clash over gender identity and regulation in sports after her first fight in Paris, when pulled out just seconds into the match, citing pain from opening punches.
False claims that Khelif was transgender or a man erupted online, and the International Olympic Committee defended her and denounced those peddling misinformation. that the spread of misconceptions about her “harms human dignity.”
Among those who posted misinformation about the athlete were Donald Trump, Elon Musk and J. K. Rowling.
Khelif’s legal complaint was filed against social media platforms, including “X,” instead of a specific perpetrator, a common formulation under French law that leaves it up to investigators to determine which person or organization that may have been at fault.
The Paris prosecutor’s office didn’t name specific suspects.
The development came two days after Khelif returned to Algeria, where she’s expected to meet with President Abdelmadjid Tebboune and be welcomed by family in her hometown of Ain Mesbah.
___
AP Olympics:
