French prosecutors in Paris opened an investigation after the French Football Federation filed a complaint over racist abuse directed at Kylian Mbappé. The case moved the dispute over Paraguay senator Mbappé from social media into the Paris prosecutor’s office on Tuesday, with possible offences carrying up to one year of imprisonment and a €45,000 fine.
Celeste Amarilla, a senator from Paraguay’s Liberal Radical party, posted the abuse after Paraguay’s loss to France at the World Cup on Saturday. The Paris prosecutor’s office said the remarks were allegedly made because of the victim’s actual or perceived origin, ethnicity, nationality, race, or religion.
Paris prosecutor’s office and the complaint
The French Football Federation described Amarilla’s remarks as “utterly abhorrent and unacceptable” before filing the complaint with the national unit for combating online hate. The prosecutor’s office then opened the inquiry on Tuesday, putting a formal legal process between a social media attack and any decision on charges.
That step matters because French investigators can now sort the post into possible legal categories rather than leave it as a public dispute. The source says prosecutors are weighing whether to seek charges for aggravated public insult or incitement to hatred or violence.
Kylian Mbappé’s response
Mbappé answered on social media and called Amarilla “a despicable woman and unworthy of your position.” He added that she did not represent Paraguay, and said her tirade was a distraction from Paraguay’s accomplishment at the World Cup.
His reply also turned the exchange back on the senator’s own language, after Amarilla wrote that he was a “colonised Cameroonian, desperately trying to pass himself off as French” and a “brute who had not learned to write.” Amarilla also said Paraguay’s players should have slapped Mbappé after the match.
Celeste Amarilla’s open letter
Amarilla later posted an open letter in French and Spanish to Mbappé on social media after her racist attack made headlines around the world. In that letter, Amarilla said she regretted mistreating Mbappé with the “same insults” she had received as a mixed-race person, and said she had deleted her post.
The letter also added a new demand: Amarilla asked Mbappé for an apology and threatened legal action if he did not retract his comments. That leaves the public record with two tracks running at once, the legal inquiry in Paris and the senator’s attempt to recast her own words after the complaint landed.
Paraguay and France respond
The government of Paraguay said Amarilla’s comments were contrary to the values and principles that inspire peaceful coexistence and respect for human dignity, and said the senator’s comments in no way represented the position of the Paraguayan government or the Paraguayan people. Emmanuel Macron then voiced support for Mbappé on social media, writing, “Another goal for Kylian Mbappé. Against racism this time,” and “All my support. When words smear, our values respond: dignity, respect, fraternity.”
The next step sits with French prosecutors, who must decide whether the complaint stays an investigation or becomes charges under the offences they are now examining. For Mbappé, the dispute has already moved beyond a post after Paraguay’s loss to France and into a legal process in Paris that could end with prison time, a fine, or no case at all.
