The attorney for said that former President 's false statements about Khelif's gender will be included in the investigation behind the online harassment suit Khelif filed last week, according to a report from The lawsuit, filed on Friday with a special unit of the public prosecutor's office in Paris, stems from false statements that spread online about Khelif's gender identity after the Algerian boxer defeated Italian boxer Angela Carini in her first fight of the 2024 Olympic Games. Carini pulled out 46 seconds into the match and told reporters after the fight that she had "never felt a punch like this." The match sparked questions about the gender of Khelif, who last year was blocked from competing in the World Championships after failing an unspecified sex-verification test by the International Boxing Association (IBA).
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has cast doubt on the validity on the test, which also disqualified Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting from competing in the 2023 World Championship. IBA has also been stripped as boxing's governing body by the IOC. Khelif claimed gold in the women's welterweight Olympic division on Friday, winning Algeria's first medal in women's boxing.
Yu-ting won gold in the women's flyweight division on Saturday. The harassment lawsuit alleges an "aggravated cyber-harassment" against Khelif, according to a statement from the boxer's lawyer, Nabil Boudi, who was quoted by the Associated Press. reported on Tuesday that the complaint was filed against X, the social platform formerly known as , which means under French law that it was filed against unknown persons.
Investigators at the Paris prosecutor's office will be open to determine who could be at fault in Khelif's complaint. Boudi told that Trump would 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." reached out to Boudi via email for comment Tuesday evening.
The former president has made about Khelif's gender identity since her fight with Carini. During a campaign rally on August 3, Trump told supporters, "Now all you have to do is look at the boxers." "This young girl from Italy, a champion boxer, she got hit so hard she didn't know what the hell hit her," Trump said of Carini.
"It's a person that transitioned," he added, referring to Khelif. "He was a good male boxer. And (Carini) didn't even go down.
He hit her with two jabs and she said, 'I'm out.'" At a rally in Montana on Friday, Trump appeared to mock Khelif's victory, telling the crowd, "And I'd like to congratulate the young woman who transitioned from a man into a boxer." "You saw he [sic] won, she won the gold medal," Trump said, who went on to praise Carini as a "beautiful Italian boxer" who is "a very good boxer, you know, against other women.
" "It's crazy what they're doing. How crazy is it ..
. and she wants it," Trump added, referring to Vice President . "She wants men to play in women sports.
" reached out to Trump's campaign for comment as well on Tuesday. also reported that author and billionaire and X owner were mentioned in the lawsuit. Rowling, best known for her books, has made controversial statements in the past about her views on transgender people, including several posts on X about Khelif's presence at the .
Musk reacted to by American swimmer and conservative figure, Riley Gaines, on August 1, which read, "Men don't belong in women's sports" with the hashtag, #IStandWithAngelaCarini. The post included a photo of Khelif. Musk wrote in response to Gaines, "Absolutely.
" Carini has said that she apologized to Khelif for the tumult that has swirled since their fight. "All this controversy certainly made me sad, and I also felt sorry for my opponent, she had nothing to do with it and like me was only here to fight," the boxer told Italian publication Gazzetta dello Sport. Carini added that it was "not intentional" when she failed to shake Khelif's hand after choosing to quit their match, saying, "I was angry, because my Games had already gone up in smoke.
" "I have nothing against Khelif and on the contrary if I happened to meet her again I would give her a hug," Carini added. Khelif told reporters after winning gold on Friday, "I'm fully qualified to take part in this competition. I'm a woman like any other woman.
I was born as a woman, I live as a woman, and I am qualified.".
