French Prosecutors Launch Investigation Into Olympic Boxing Champ Imane Khelif’s Harassment Claim

Paris prosecutors have opened an investigation into Olympic gold medalist boxer Imane Khelif’s legal complaint of online harassment following her appearance at the Paris games.

Khelif filed the complaint for “moral harassment” Friday with the national center for combating online hate, a part of the Paris prosecutor’s office, after winning the gold medal, beating China’s Yang Liu in the 66kg women’s category.

The torrent of criticism over gender identity and regulation in sports began when Khelif’s Italian opponent Angela Carini withdrew just seconds into the match, citing pain from Khelif’s opening punches.

In the complaint, Khelif described how her quarter-final appearance in the Olympic competition triggered a flood of hate messages targeting Khelif. She was described as “a transgender person” deliberately competing in the wrong category, and accused of “violence against women.” Her lawyer said these messages were viewed more than 100 million times around the world and caused an ordeal for her client during an important sporting competition.

The prosecutor’s office said Wednesday that 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,” according to The Associated Press.

After her win Friday, Khelif said: “I am fully qualified to participate in this competition. I am a woman, I was born a woman, I have lived as a woman and I competed as a woman. There is no doubt about that.

“There are enemies of success – this is what I call them. Of course, that also gives my success a special taste because of these attacks.”

Logan Paul and his brother Jake Paul were some of the high-profile social media users who jumped on the bandwagon to make false accusations about Khelif. “This is the purest form of evil unfolding right before our eyes,” Logan Paul said in a now-deleted post. “A man was allowed to beat up a woman on a global stage, crushing her life’s dream while fighting for her deceased father. This delusion must end.”

Donald Trump, JK Rowling, Elon Musk and Italy’s prime minister Giorgia Meloni, were among other high-profile names that expressed their outrage on social media under false information. None, as-yet, has issued a correction.