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06-08-2024
PARIS: French prosecutors have opened an investigation into death threats made against the organizers of the Paris Olympics opening ceremony.
On Saturday artistic director Thomas Jolly, ceremonies director Thierry Reboul and Alexandre Billard of events agency Ubi Bene, filed a complaint for death threats.
Last month, French DJ Barbara Butch, who performed in the opening ceremony’s drag queen sequence, lodged a complaint after receiving abuse online.
That sequence sparked controversy as some religious officials and conservative politicians in France and abroad saw an offensive reference to The Last Supper.
Jolly has said that he was not inspired by the famous Leonardo da Vinci painting showing Jesus Christ and his apostles.
Instead, he said the sequence, titled Festivity, was inspired by Greek mythology and intended to be a celebration of diversity, adding his intention was not to “be subversive, nor to mock or to shock”.
French prosecutors opened the investigation after Jolly, who is openly gay, complained of death threats and cyberbullying.
Some emails received by Jolly and the head of a production company quoted a verse from the Quran, stating that “Allah’s punishment will befall the organizers in Saint-Denis” (one of the Olympic sites), Le Parisien newspaper reports.
Prosecutors are also investigating insults directed at drag queen Nicky Doll, who also featured in the controversial scene.
DJ Barbara Butch told France Inter radio on Sunday that she had received messages “inviting me to burn in hell in every language and swastikas”.
On Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron said he was “outraged” by the cyberbullying directed at Jolly, adding that “nothing justifies threatening an artist”.
“The French were very proud of this ceremony,” he said. “France showed appropriate boldness with artistic freedom.”
A French DJ who performed during the Paris Olympics’ opening ceremony has filed a legal complaint after receiving abuse online.
Barbara Butch took part in a drag queen sequence during the event which sparked controversy as viewers interpreted it as a reference to The Last Supper
The ceremony’s artistic director, Thomas Jolly, denied this and some art experts said the scene shared more similarities with a painting of Greek gods.
A lawyer for Barbara Butch said the DJ “has been threatened with death, torture and rape, and has also been the target of numerous anti-Semitic, homophobic, sexist and Grosso-phobic insults”.
Butch said she had been the target of “cyber-harassment”, adding that the messages she was receiving were “increasingly extreme”.
French authorities normally examine complaints before deciding whether to launch a formal police investigation.
Jolly has said that he was not inspired by The Last Supper, the famous Leonardo da Vinci painting showing Jesus Christ and his apostles.
Instead, he said the sequence, titled Festivity, was inspired by Greek mythology and intended to be a celebration of diversity, adding his intention was not to “be subversive, nor to mock or to shock”.
Jolly added it was obvious that the tableau was not inspired by The Last Supper given the presence of a figure representing the Greek god Dionysus but some viewers who interpreted it as a reference to the painting said they were offended by the similarities. French Catholic bishops said Christians had been hurt and offended by the show. Butch wore a silver headdress which looked like a halo during her set, while surrounded by drag artists and dancers. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
