GENEVA (AP) — The International Boxing Association said Monday it will file criminal complaints against the International Olympic Committee in the U.S., France and Switzerland.
The Swiss-based IOC allowing female boxers Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting to compete and win gold medals in Paris last year “may serve as grounds for criminal prosecution,” the IBA claimed in a statement.
The Russian-led boxing body has been banished from the Olympics but it cited an executive order on transgender athletes by United States President Donald Trump on Monday to justify the criminal complaints.
“According to the Swiss law, any action or inaction that poses a safety risk to competition participants warrants investigation and may serve as grounds for criminal prosecution,” the IBA said, adding “similar complaints are to be filed with the Attorneys General of France and the USA.”
The IBA, which has been funded by Russia state energy firm Gazprom, also promised free legal advice to female boxers to pursue cases against IOC president Thomas Bach and other senior Olympic officials.
“President Trump’s order to ban transgender athletes from women’s sport validates IBA’s efforts to protect the integrity of female sports,” the boxing body’s president Umar Kremlev said on Monday.
The legal threats intensify a years-long feud between the now-exiled IBA and the IOC, and between Kremlev and Bach. The IOC took over control of running boxing tournaments at the past two Summer Games in Tokyo and Paris.
The IOC said on Monday the legal tactic was “just another example of IBA’s campaign against the IOC which is ongoing since their recognition was withdrawn ... for issues related to governance, judging and refereeing as well as questions around their finances.”
The IOC has consistently said the boxers from Algeria and Taiwan, who were assigned female at birth and identify as women, complied with all the rules for the Olympic tournament. Both also competed in Tokyo in 2021 and did not win medals.
Khelif and Lin were disqualified from the 2023 world championships run by the IBA, which said they failed eligibility tests.
“The two female athletes mentioned by IBA are not transgender athletes," the IOC reiterated on Monday.
Trump has frequently misgendered the boxers as men and last Wednesday at the White House spoke without evidence of “two women or two people that transitioned and both of them won gold medals.”
Trump signed the executive order, titled ‘Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,’ which aims to ban transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports.
The next Summer Games are in Los Angeles in July 2028, during Trump's presidential term, and he urged the IOC last week to change everything “having to do with this absolutely ridiculous subject.”
Top-tier Olympic sports track and field, swimming and cycling have already passed rules in the past three years that exclude athletes who went through male puberty from competing in women’s events. World Athletics moved on Monday toward adopting stricter rules.
Tournament rules including for gender issues at Olympic boxing are broadly the same as at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games, though the IOC on Monday cited career records of the two women targeted by IBA to show they have an unremarkable number of wins by referees stopping the fight.
"Such data is relevant when evaluating whether Yu-Ting and Khelif had a heightened performance advantage and/or safety risk compared to other successful boxers in the women’s category,” the IOC said.
AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports
IOC President Thomas Bach looks at the sculpture of Pierre Decoubertin during the ceremony 'One Year To Go' for the 2026 Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics, at the Strehler Theatre, in Milan, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
FILE - Algeria's Imane Khelif, right, looks at Italy's Angela Carini, following their women's 66kg preliminary boxing match at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)
President Donald Trump signs an executive order barring transgender female athletes from competing in women's or girls' sporting events, in the East Room of the White House, Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran wants to negotiate with Washington after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic over its bloody crackdown on protesters, a move coming as activists said Monday the death toll in the nationwide demonstrations rose to at least 544.
Iran had no immediate reaction to the news, which came after the foreign minister of Oman — long an interlocutor between Washington and Tehran — traveled to Iran this weekend. It also remains unclear just what Iran could promise, particularly as Trump has set strict demands over its nuclear program and its ballistic missile arsenal, which Tehran insists is crucial for its national defense.
Meanwhile Monday, Iran called for pro-government demonstrators to head to the streets in support of the theocracy, a show of force after days of protests directly challenging the rule of 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iranian state television aired chants from the crowd, who shouted “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!”
Trump and his national security team have been weighing a range of potential responses against Iran including cyberattacks and direct strikes by the U.S. or Israel, according to two people familiar with internal White House discussions who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
“The military is looking at it, and we’re looking at some very strong options,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday night. Asked about Iran’s threats of retaliation, he said: “If they do that, we will hit them at levels that they’ve never been hit before.”
Trump said that his administration was in talks to set up a meeting with Tehran, but cautioned that he may have to act first as reports of the death toll in Iran mount and the government continues to arrest protesters.
“I think they’re tired of being beat up by the United States,” Trump said. “Iran wants to negotiate.”
He added: “The meeting is being set up, but we may have to act because of what’s happening before the meeting. But a meeting is being set up. Iran called, they want to negotiate.”
Iran through country's parliamentary speaker warned Sunday that the U.S. military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if America uses force to protect demonstrators.
More than 10,600 people also have been detained over the two weeks of protests, said the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been accurate in previous unrest in recent years and gave the death toll. It relies on supporters in Iran crosschecking information. It said 496 of the dead were protesters and 48 were with security forces.
With the internet down in Iran and phone lines cut off, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the toll. Iran’s government has not offered overall casualty figures.
Those abroad fear the information blackout is emboldening hard-liners within Iran’s security services to launch a bloody crackdown. Protesters flooded the streets in the country’s capital and its second-largest city on Saturday night into Sunday morning. Online videos purported to show more demonstrations Sunday night into Monday, with a Tehran official acknowledging them in state media.
In Tehran, a witness told the AP that the streets of the capital empty at the sunset call to prayers each night. By the Isha, or nighttime prayer, the streets are deserted.
Part of that stems from the fear of getting caught in the crackdown. Police sent the public a text message that warned: “Given the presence of terrorist groups and armed individuals in some gatherings last night and their plans to cause death, and the firm decision to not tolerate any appeasement and to deal decisively with the rioters, families are strongly advised to take care of their youth and teenagers.”
Another text, which claimed to come from the intelligence arm of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, also directly warned people not to take part in demonstrations.
“Dear parents, in view of the enemy’s plan to increase the level of naked violence and the decision to kill people, ... refrain from being on the streets and gathering in places involved in violence, and inform your children about the consequences of cooperating with terrorist mercenaries, which is an example of treason against the country,” the text warned.
The witness spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing crackdown.
The demonstrations began Dec. 28 over the collapse of the Iranian rial currency, which trades at over 1.4 million to $1, as the country’s economy is squeezed by international sanctions in part levied over its nuclear program. The protests intensified and grew into calls directly challenging Iran’s theocracy.
Nikhinson reported from aboard Air Force One.
In this frame grab from video obtained by the AP outside Iran, a masked demonstrator holds a picture of Iran's Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi during a protest in Tehran, Iran, Friday, January. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)
In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran shows protesters taking to the streets despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026.(UGC via AP)
In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran showed protesters once again taking to the streets of Tehran despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Saturday Jan. 10, 2026. (UGC via AP)
