Ten individuals found guilty of cyber-bullying directed at Brigitte Macron
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A Paris court has convicted ten people for perpetrating the digital intimidation of Brigitte Macron, the spouse of the President of France, Emmanuel Macron.
The accused individuals faced accusations of disseminating false claims regarding her gender identity and sexual orientation, in addition to posting malicious remarks about the husband and wife's significant age difference.
The court issued suspended jail terms of as much as eight months to the perpetrators. The complete verdict has not yet been published.
A persistent unfounded claim suggesting that Brigitte Macron is a trans woman has been in circulation since her husband's initial election in 2017.
This latest legal outcome in France comes as the Macrons initiating a libel case in the US against right-wing influencer Candace Owens, who has repeatedly shared analogous false narratives about the French president's wife's biological sex.
Their legal filing states that Owens brushed aside substantial counter-evidence that refuted her assertions opting to amplify the voices of notorious conspiracy peddlers.
Owens has regularly repeated these allegations on her show and online platforms, and in March 2024 declared that she would stake her entire professional reputation on her insistence that Mrs. Macron is biologically male.
Brigitte Macron initially encountered her current spouse when she worked as an educator at his secondary school.
The two tied the knot in 2007, when the man who would become president was 29 and she was 54.