A group of ten sentenced of cyber-bullying directed at Brigitte Macron
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A French judicial body has found guilty ten people for carrying out the digital intimidation of Brigitte Macron, the wife of France's leader, Emmanuel Macron.
The those on trial faced accusations of circulating untruths regarding her gender and sexual orientation, in addition to publishing hurtful comments about the couple's age disparity of 24 years.
The court handed down suspended prison sentences of a maximum of eight months to the defendants. The complete verdict has not yet been published.
A longstanding unfounded claim suggesting that Brigitte Macron is a transgender woman has been in circulation since her husband's first electoral victory in 2017.
This Monday's court decision in France comes as the Macrons pursuing a legal action for defamation in the US against political commentator Candace Owens, who has also voiced analogous false narratives about the French president's wife's gender.
Their complaint contends that Owens disregarded any factual proof disproving her claim opting to give a platform to established defamers.
Owens has regularly repeated these allegations on her podcast and social media channels, and in March 2024 declared that she would stake her entire professional reputation on her belief that Mrs. Macron was born a man.
Brigitte Macron initially encountered her current spouse when she was a teacher at his secondary school.
The couple married in 2007, when the then-29-year-old Emmanuel Macron was 29 and she was in her mid-50s.
