Olympic boxing champion Imane Khelif files lawsuit over cyberbullying – National

French prosecutors have opened an investigation into a complaint of online harassment filed by Olympic boxing champion Imane Khelif after a flood of criticism and false claims about her gender during the Summer Games, the Paris prosecutor’s office said on Wednesday.

The athlete’s lawyer, Nabil Boudi, filed a complaint on Friday with a special unit of the Paris public prosecutor’s office that combats online hate speech.

Boudi said the boxer was the target of a “misogynistic, racist and sexist campaign” after she won gold in the women’s welterweight division, making her a hero in her native Algeria and drawing global attention to women’s boxing.

The Prosecutor’s Office said it had received the complaint and that the Office for Combating Crimes against Humanity and Hate Crimes had launched an investigation into charges of “cyberbullying based on gender, public insults based on gender, public incitement to discrimination and public insults based on ethnicity.”

Khelif was involuntarily embroiled in a global conflict over gender identity and sports regulations after her first fight in Paris. Her Italian opponent Angela Carini withdrew from the match after just a few seconds, because she was in pain from the opening punches.

False claims emerged online that Khelif was transgender or a man, and the International Olympic Committee defended her and condemned those who spread disinformation. Khelif said the spread of misconceptions about her “harms human dignity.”

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Among those who spread misinformation about the athlete were Donald Trump, Elon Musk and JK Rowling.

Khelif’s legal complaint was filed against social media platforms including “X”, rather than a specific perpetrator, a common formulation in French law that leaves it up to investigators to determine which person or organization may be guilty.

The Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office did not name any specific suspects.

The event came two days after Khelif returned to Algeria, where she is expected to meet President Abdelmadjid Tebboune and be welcomed by her family in her hometown of Ain Mesbah.

In Algeria, Khelif’s former coach Mustapha Bensaou said the boxer’s complaint was filed in France by Algerian authorities and “should be a lesson in defending the rights and honour (of athletes) in Algeria and the rest of the world.”

“All those involved will be prosecuted for violating Imane’s dignity and honor,” Bensaou said in an interview with The Associated Press. He added: “The attacks on Imane were meant to break her and undermine her morale. Thank God she triumphed.”

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