Hate Crimes Investigation Ordered Into Threats Against Olympics Opening Ceremony DJ

A storm of outrage about the Paris Olympics’ opening ceremony took a legal turn Tuesday, with French prosecutors ordering police to investigate complaints from a DJ and LGBTQ+ icon that she suffered a torrent of online threats and abuse in the ceremony’s wake.

Barbara Butch’s lawyer told The Associated Press that she had filed a formal legal complaint alleging online harassment, death threats, and insults. The lawyer, Audrey Msellati, said the complaint doesn’t name any specific perpetrator or perpetrators of the alleged crimes.

The Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed that it received Butch’s legal complaint and said it immediately tasked a special police unit that specializes in fighting hate crimes to investigate.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

PARIS (AP) — A storm of outrage about the Paris Olympics’ opening ceremony took a legal turn Tuesday, with a DJ who performed at the show saying her lawyer is filing complaints over a torrent of threats and other abuse that the LGBTQ+ icon has suffered online in the ceremony’s wake.

Barbara Butch’s lawyer said in a letter posted to the DJ’s Instagram that Butch “has been threatened with death, torture and rape, and has also been the target of numerous anti-Semitic, homophobic, sexist and grossophobic insults.”

Butch’s agent confirmed to The Associated Press that the Instagram account is the DJ’s.

Although the ceremony’s artistic director Thomas Jolly has repeatedly said that he wasn’t inspired by “The Last Supper,” critics interpreted part of the show that featured Butch as a mockery of Leonardo Da Vinci’s painting showing Jesus Christ and his apostles.

Butch, who calls herself a “love activist,” wore a silver headdress that looked like a halo