Olympic boxing champion Imane Khelif of Algeria, whose gender has been hotly debated, has filed a formal legal complaint for online harassment.
Khelif was previously disqualified from the Women’s World Boxing Championships in New Delhi last year for failing a series of DNA tests, which showed the boxer was ineligible to compete. According to reports, Khelif and another Olympic boxer, Taiwan's Lin Yu-Ting, are believed to have Difference of Sexual Development (DSD), a medical condition where "the biological sex (being male or female)…does not match the genital appearance," according to Endocrine.org.
The complaint was filed Friday with a special unit in the Paris prosecutor’s office for combating online hate speech, alleging “aggravated cyber-harassment” targeting Khelif, lawyer Nabil Boudi said. In a statement, he described it as a “misogynist, racist and sexist campaign” against the boxer.
It is now up to prosecutors to decide whether to open an investigation. As is common in French law, the complaint doesn’t name an alleged perpetrator but leaves it to investigators to determine who could be at fault. (AP)
“The criminal investigation will determine who initiated this misogynistic, racist and sexist campaign but will also have to focus on those who fueled this digital lynching," Boudi said in a statement. “The unfair harassment suffered by the boxing champion will remain the biggest stain of these Olympic Games."
"All that is being said about me on social media is immoral," Khelif said on Saturday. "I want to change the minds of people around the world."
Khelif won a gold medal on Friday, defeating Yang Liu of China. Attention was drawn to the boxer after Khelif's Italian opponent, Angela Carini, dropped out just 46 seconds into the match due to the pain from punches.
“I am heartbroken,” Carini said. “I went to the ring to honor my father. I was told a lot of times that I was a warrior but I preferred to stop for my health. I have never felt a punch like this.”