(from left to right) J.K. Rowling, Imane Khelif, and Elon Musk | Image: X/@jk_rowling, AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, AP Photo/Susan Walsh
“Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling and billionaire businessman Elon Musk are among the individuals named in the cyberbullying lawsuit filed by Olympic boxer champion Imane Khelif.
Khelif’s attorney, Nabil Boudi, confirmed to Variety that both figures were mentioned in the body of the criminal complaint, filed in the anti-online hatred center of the Paris Prosecutor’s Office, over alleged “acts of aggravated cyber harassment” against the Algerian boxer.
The outlet also verified that the French authorities received the complaint and announced the launch of an investigation.
“On Aug. 13, the National Center for the Fight Against Online Hatred contacted the Central Office for the Fight Against Crimes Against Humanity and Hate Crimes to conduct 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,” read the statement.
Aside from Rowling and Musk, former United States President Donald Trump will also be part of the investigation, saying, “Trump tweeted, so whether or not he is named in our lawsuit, he will inevitably be looked into as part of the prosecution.”
Khelif became a center of public scrutiny after she became the subject of global gender eligibility row during her Paris 2024 Olympics stint. Rowling, Musk, and Trump are among the known individuals who aired “misogynistic, racist, and sexist” comments on X (formerly Twitter) against the boxer.
Rowling, who’s been seen as a critic of the transgender community, stressed that Khelif is protected by “misogynist” sports organizations as she enjoys “punching” a woman in a boxing match.
“The smirk of a male who knows he’s protected by a misogynist sporting establishment, enjoying the distress of a woman he’s just punched in the head, and whose life’s ambition he’s just shattered,” wrote the book author at the time.
Meanwhile, Khelif, who proved to be a woman and not transgender, became Algeria’s first gold medalist in women’s boxing and its first boxer overall to win gold since 1996 during the recently concluded Olympics.