By Bill Heaney

One of Scotland’s leading KCs believes the chances of JK Rowling appearing in court in relation to a case brought by Imane Khelif is “remote”.

The Harry Potter author has been named in a lawsuit filed by the Algerian boxer, who won gold at the Paris Olympics.

The fighter’s presence in the competition sparked worldwide controversy after she was banned from competing in the world championships last year.

Boxing’s governing body, the International Boxing Federation, deemed Khelif to be ‘biologically male, but Olympic bosses gave her the green light to compete in Paris.

One bout sparked particular anger when Italy’s Angela Carini quit after just 46 seconds following a punch from Khelif, 25, who is said to have male ‘XY chromosomes’.

Rowling, 59, along with the likes of Elon Musk, has been accused of “acts of aggravated cyber harassment” by Khelif in papers lodged with French authorities.

It has led to a frenzy among trans activists who hope it could end with Rowling going to jail.

But Scots lawyer Roddy Dunlop, pictured left,  KC has poured cold water on the prospect.

The Dean of the Faculty of Advocates said Article 10 of the European Courts of Human Rights would throw out any case against the author.

Caveating that he is not an expert on French law, he posted on social media: “…France is bound by ECHR. Under Article 10, freedom of expression is highly protected.

Particular protection is given to the expression of opinions on matters of public interest.

“To get anywhere close to justifying interfering with that freedom, opinions would need to be based on untruths. That raises the prospect of it being necessary to establish the sex/biological makeup of Ms Khelif.

“Even then, speech needs to exceed by a large margin reasonable boundaries before it can be criminalised. Given the countervailing issues regarding safety and fairness in women’s sport, it is very hard to see a prosecution passing muster under ECHR.”

Mr Dunlop said French court accepting jurisdiction would not be an “insurmountable problem” but that would would mean “France would be policing the entire internet”.

He added: “The chilling effect of this on freedom of expression would be enormous. Anything put on the internet is viewable anywhere in the world.

“To hold that anyone posting on X must comply with the laws of every country in the world is, quite literally, exorbitant.”

He also said he would be “astonished” if US courts extradited anyone in relation to the case, and only “marginally less so” if UK courts did.