Popcorn not being the traditional French treat to celebrate an entertaining spectacle, break out the caramel au beurre salé.
J.K. Rowling and Elon Musk have been accused in a complaint to French prosecutors of misgendering and ‘acts of aggravated cyber harassment’ against the Algerian boxer and newly crowned Olympic gold medallist Imane Khelif, whom I must avoid misgendering myself, lest I find myself a target of prosecution. I shall therefore refer to this individual by the pronoun K, so as to avoid confusion with Elon’s X.
French lawyers have developed a taste for associating high-profile names with even the most spurious complaints
After K’s Olympic triumph, Rowling, the world’s most notorious Terf, or as she is known here, féministe radicale excluant les personnes trans, accused Khelif of ‘enjoying the distress of a woman he’s just punched in the head.’ Musk weighed in, replying ‘Absolutely’ to a post from swimmer Riley Gaines that said ‘men don’t belong in women’s sports’. A single word that could theoretically lead to him doing time in France.
Nabil Boudi, the Paris-based attorney of Khelif, said K’s complaint was posted to the anti-online hatred centre of the Paris public prosecutor’s office on Friday. He said there had been an ‘aggressive, misogynistic and racist’ campaign against the boxer.
The case is a criminal one and conviction could lead to two years imprisonment and a €30,000 fine for Rowling and Musk, but neither should be packing their toothbrushes yet for a stay in the Bastille.
K’s sex, or gender, is, to be fair, disputed. K identifies as female and was raised as such, but the world boxing governing body doesn’t agree, since by chromosomal markers K might be considered male. The International Olympic Committee nevertheless considers K female, since this is what it says on K’s passport. K was therefore permitted to batter their way to the podium against competitors who were indisputably women.
K’s gender status is capable of being interpreted much as advocates of either side might wish, as she/he appears to have a disorder of sex development, similar to that of the South African athlete Caster Semenya, a middle-distance runner and winner of two Olympic gold medals and three world championships. Semenya has the intersex condition 5a-Reductase 2 deficiency (please don’t ask me to elucidate) and natural testosterone levels in the typical male range. But K nevertheless packs a formidable punch.
Does this criminal allegation have any chance of succeeding? I’m not a qualified French lawyer nor indeed any kind of lawyer but I shall climb out on a limb and suggest, même pas en rêve (in your dreams). French lawyers have developed a taste for associating high-profile names with even the most spurious complaints, as with the attempted prosecution of Apple for alleged human rights abuses in Africa. A case which eventually fizzled out, like the battery in an exhausted iPhone. As will this one, I am sure.
James Tidmarsh, a Paris lawyer who is qualified in both England and France, tells me:
‘In order to amount to cyber bullying under French law there would need to be intent to harm as well as a pattern of harassment against the same targeted individual. If there is no pattern of harassment shown against Khelif, and no specific intent to harm Khelif, the criminal case will not proceed.
And even if it were to proceed I seriously doubt that Musk could be extradited to France over this — the offense would also need to be a crime in the States for him to be at all concerned —which presumably under US First Amendment guarantee of freedom of speech it is not.’
Although perhaps the Scottish government might put Rowling on a plane to Paris to face the music.
Woke left-wing French prosecutors relish engagement in cinematic spectacle. Take the entertaining affair of Les Murs des Cons (the wall of idiots). In 2013 it was discovered by a journalist that the magistrates’ union in Paris had a photo montage on the wall of various figures on the French right, with insults written beside their visages. These figures included the former President Nicolas Sarkozy, right-wing intellectuals and police trade unionists.
There were also photos of various parents of victims of crime, including two fathers of young girls raped and killed by repeat offenders, who had campaigned in favour of the genetic recording of sex offenders and against the laxity of justice.
The insolent journalist who revealed the existence of the photo wall was then himself pursued judicially for criminal defamation – although ultimately the case ended with the conviction of the union president for public insults.
The prosecutors here can be said therefore to have form pursuing their political foes.
That gender identity has become a cause of lawfare is hardly startling as France is captured by wokeisme, but if nothing else, the pursuit of Musk and Rowling in the French criminal courts provides an amusing epitaph to the Olympics, and might offer many more months of sporting entertainment.
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