Olympic Women's Boxing Champ Imane Khelif Lodges Criminal Complaint Against J.K. Rowling, Elon Musk, and Others, Alleging Online Harassment

Olympic women's boxing champion Imane Khelif endured more punishment outside the ring than inside as right-wing trolls launched a barrage of lies about her gender and gender identity. Now Khelif has brought a criminal complaint against some high-profile individuals, including J.K. Rowling and Elon Musk.

The "Harry Potter" author and the SpaceX founder "have both been named in a criminal complaint filed to French authorities over alleged 'acts of aggravated cyber harassment' against Algerian boxer," Variety reported.

"The athlete's lawyer Nabil Boudi filed a legal complaint with a special unit in the Paris prosecutor's office that combats online hate speech on Friday," the Associated Press reported on Aug. 14

"Boudi said the boxer was targeted by a 'misogynist, racist and sexist campaign' as she won gold in the women's welterweight division, becoming a hero in her native Algeria and bringing global attention to women's boxing," the AP added.

In a statement provided to Variety, the Paris Prosecutor's Office detailed that 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" was now underway. Moreover, Rowling and Musk aren't the only high-profile figures known for anti-transgender rhetoric who might be swept up into the office's inquiries.

"The lawsuit was filed against X," Variety noted, "which under French law means that it was filed against unknown persons."

"J. K. Rowling and Elon Musk are named in the lawsuit, among others," according to Khelif's lawyer, Nabil Boudi, who suggested that another major personality – Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump – might also find himself under scrutiny.

"Trump tweeted," Boudi said, "so whether or not he is named in our lawsuit, he will inevitably be looked into as part of the prosecution."

"In one message to her 14.2 million followers, Rowling posted a picture from Khelif's fight with Italian boxer Angela Carini, accusing the former of being a man who was 'enjoying the distress of a woman he's just punched in the head,'" Variety recounted.

"Musk, meanwhile, shared a post from swimmer Riley Gaines that claimed 'men don't belong in women's sports.' The X owner co-signed the message by writing: 'Absolutely.'"

For his part, "Trump posted a message with a picture from the fight with Carina accompanied by the message: 'I will keep men out of women's sports!'" Variety recalled.

"Despite being born female and not identifying as transgender or intersex – and being backed by the International Olympic Committee, who asserted 'scientifically, this is not a man fighting a woman' – Khelif faced a torrent of accusations and abuse over her gender," Variety summarized.

Khelif faced "sharp scrutiny and online abuse as misconceptions about her gender exploded into a larger clash about identity in sports," the Associated Press detailed in a previous article.

"Khelif faced outcry fueled by claims from the International Boxing Association, which has been banned from the Olympics since 2019, that she failed an unspecified eligibility test to compete last year over elevated levels of testosterone," the AP went on to add.

The groundless controversy sparked the outpouring of online anti-transgender hate despite IOC President Thomas Bach's protestations that Khelif is a cisgender woman.

"Let's be very clear here: We are talking about women's boxing," Bach told the media, the AP relayed. Speaking about both Khelif and another athlete, Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting, Bach stressed that "We have two boxers who are born as a woman, who have been raised a woman, who have a passport as a woman, and who have competed for many years as women."

"And this is the clear definition of a woman," Bach added. "There was never any doubt about them being a woman."