Ten individuals sentenced of online harassment targeting Brigitte Macron
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A court in Paris has ruled against ten people for engaging in the cyber-bullying of Brigitte Macron, the spouse of the President of France, Emmanuel Macron.
The defendants faced accusations of spreading false claims regarding her gender and sexuality, in addition to publishing defamatory statements about the pair's age disparity of 24 years.
The court delivered conditional custodial sentences of up to eight months to the convicted individuals. The detailed judgment has not yet been published.
A longstanding unfounded claim alleging that Brigitte Macron is a transgender woman has existed since her husband's initial election in 2017.
This recent ruling in France comes as the Macrons pursuing a legal action for defamation in the United States of America against right-wing influencer Candace Owens, who has also voiced analogous false narratives about the French president's wife's gender.
Their lawsuit alleges that Owens brushed aside all credible evidence contradicting her allegations choosing instead to platforming known conspiracy theorists.
Owens has frequently reiterated these claims on her digital program and social networks, and in March 2024 declared that she would risk all her credibility on her conviction that Mrs. Macron is biologically male.
Brigitte Macron initially encountered her now-husband when she worked as an educator at his high school.
The couple tied the knot in 2007, when the future French president was 29 and she was in her mid-50s.
