Tech billionaire Elon Musk and writer J.K. Rowling were named in a criminal complaint filed by Algerian boxer Imane Khelif to French authorities over alleged sex-based “acts of aggravated cyber harassment,” according to Fox News.
Nabil Boudi, a Paris-based lawyer for Khelif, confirmed on Tuesday that the owner of Space X and the author of the Harry Potter were named in the complaint originally filed on Friday to a unit of the Paris prosecutor’s office known as the National Centre for the Fight Against Online Hatred.
In a separate statement to Variety, the centre confirmed that the boxer wanted to launch an investigation into “the counts of cyber harassment due to gender, public insult because of gender, public incitement to discrimination and public insult because of origin.”
Khelif, who failed a gender test for women’s competition last year, sparked an international outcry over issues of gender identity and maintaining fair competition in women’s sport when Italian rival Angela Carini withdrew from the bout at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics, citing pain from opening punches.
I’m terribly hurt, I don’t want to continue. It’s unfair.
The bout lasted 46 seconds. However, Carini later stated that she regretted her decision and wanted to apologise to Khelif, probably due to the public pressure she faced.
Alleged bullying
When former NCAA (National Collegiate Athletics Association) swimmer Riley Gaines wrote on X, “Men don’t belong in women’s sports,” Musk responded, “Absolutely.”
Rowling also commented on the incident in several posts on X.
The idea that those objecting to a male punching a female in the name of sport are objecting because they believe Khelif to be ‘trans’ is a joke. We object because we saw a male punching a female. I don’t claim Khelif is trans. My objection, and that of many others, is to male violence against women becoming an Olympic sport.
Former US President Donald Trump shared a picture of the fight between Khelif and Carini and wrote on his own platform, TRUTH Social:
I will keep men out of women’s sports!
In the criminal complaint, Boudi said his client was the target of a “misogynist, racist and sexist campaign” as Khelif won gold in the women’s welterweight division, becoming a hero in her native Algeria and drawing worldwide attention to women’s boxing.
J. K. Rowling and Elon Musk are named in the lawsuit, among others. Trump tweeted, so whether or not he is named in our lawsuit, he will inevitably be looked into as part of the prosecution. (…) What we’re asking is that the prosecution investigates not only these people but whoever it feels necessary. If the case goes to court, they will stand trial.
Khelif’s legal complaint was filed against social media platforms, including X, rather than a specific perpetrator. This is the common wording under French law, which leaves it up to investigators to determine which people or organisations may have been at fault.
Women’s boxing
Seventeen months ago in New Delhi, India, Khelif was disqualified from the International Boxing Association (IBA) World Championships three days after beating previously undefeated Russian Azalia Amineva in an early-round bout. After numerous complaints from coaches, Khelif and another boxer, Lin Yu-ting, agreed to gender testing through blood samples in 2022. The lab results “did not match the eligibility criteria for IBA women’s events,” the IBA said in a statement on 5 August, designed to “clarify the facts” surrounding Khelif amid the Olympics controversy.
The tests were conducted in 2023, with the results again failing to meet the eligibility criteria, the IBA stated.
In a 1 August statement, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) defended Khelif and Lin, explaining that the gender and age of all athletes competing in the boxing event of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games were “based on their passport.” The Committee condemned “misleading information” about the two athletes, stating that they “were the victims of a sudden and arbitrary decision by the IBA.”
