Getty PicturesBoxer Imane Khelif has filed a lawsuit over alleged cyberbullying in the course of the Paris 2024 Olympics, which reportedly names creator JK Rowling and X proprietor Elon Musk.
The Algerian boxer received gold in Paris, regardless of being disqualified from final 12 months’s World Championships by the Worldwide Boxing Affiliation (IBA), after she was reported to have failed gender eligibility exams in 2023.
Nonetheless, the Worldwide Olympic Committee strongly defended Khelif’s proper to compete and dominated her to be eligible.
Her lawyer Nabil Boudi told Variety on Tuesday that Musk and Rowling can be named within the lawsuit, following feedback they made on social media.
Khelif’s participation was extensively mentioned on-line, after Italian boxer Angela Carini deserted her Olympic bout in opposition to her after 46 seconds.
Paris public prosecutor’s workplace informed information company AFP on Wednesday that that they had launched a cyberbullying probe, following a criticism by Khelif.
Nonetheless, a outstanding French authorized blogger wrote on X that it’s unlikely Mr Musk or Ms Rowling would face prosecution, as French penal regulation doesn’t apply to acts dedicated outdoors of France in opposition to international nationals.
However prosecutors may press expenses in opposition to those that despatched messages on French soil.
Khelif, together with Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, was cleared to compete within the girls’s boxing in Paris, having been disqualified from final 12 months’s Girls’s World Championships for failing to satisfy eligibility standards.
However the IOC took a distinct view, strongly defending the 2 boxers.
“This can be a query of justice: girls should be allowed to participate in girls’s competitions. And the 2 are girls,” IOC president Thomas Bach mentioned.
Getty PicturesX CEO Mr Musk and Harry Potter creator Ms Rowling each posted feedback concerning the boxer, with Ms Rowling saying Khelif was “having fun with the misery of a girl he’s simply punched within the head” following the combat with Carini.
Mr Musk shared a publish from swimmer Riley Gaines which mentioned “males don’t belong in girls’s sports activities”.
BBC Information has contacted representatives for Mr Musk and Ms Rowling for remark.
Following her win, Khelif mentioned “assaults” over her gender eligibility gave her victory in opposition to Chinese language world champion Yang Liu a “particular style” after she received Olympic girls’s boxing gold, a 12 months after being disqualified from the World Championships.
“I’m absolutely certified to participate on this competitors,” mentioned 25-year-old Khelif. “I’m a girl like another girl.
“I used to be born a girl. I’ve lived as a girl. I competed as a girl – there isn’t a doubt about that.”
A day after abandoning her personal combat with Khelif, Carini mentioned she “wished to apologise” to her opponent for the way she dealt with the moments afterwards, when she declined to shake arms with Khelif.
Yang had additionally been as a consequence of face Khelif within the closing of final 12 months’s World Championship – a title Yang went on to win – however Khelif was disqualified by the Worldwide Boxing Affiliation (IBA) earlier than they met.
The IBA mentioned Khelif and Lin “failed to satisfy the eligibility standards for taking part within the girls’s competitors, as set and specified by the IBA laws”.
The Worldwide Olympic Committee (IOC) allowed them to compete, raised doubts concerning the exams and strongly criticised the IBA.
A chaotic information convention held subsequently by the IBA did little to clear the confusion round Khelif and Lin’s bans.
Chief govt Chris Roberts mentioned the pair had “chromosome exams”, whereas president Umar Kremlev appeared to recommend the exams decided the fighters’ testosterone ranges.
The BBC has been unable to find out what the eligibility exams consisted of.
The Russian-led IBA was stripped of its standing as beginner boxing’s governing physique by the IOC in 2019 due to fears over its governance and regulation.
