Ten individuals found guilty of online harassment targeting Brigitte Macron
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A Paris court has found guilty ten people for carrying out the cyber-bullying of Brigitte Macron, the spouse of France's leader, Emmanuel Macron.
The accused individuals faced allegations of spreading false claims regarding her gender and sexuality, in addition to making hurtful comments about the pair's significant age difference.
The court issued suspended prison sentences of as much as eight months to the perpetrators. The full ruling has yet to be released.
A longstanding false narrative claiming that Brigitte Macron is a transgender woman has existed 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 United States of America against conservative commentator Candace Owens, who has likewise promoted similar conspiracy theories about the French president's wife's identity.
Their complaint states that Owens brushed aside any factual proof disproving her claim in favour of amplify the voices of notorious conspiracy peddlers.
Owens has often echoed these allegations on her digital program and social media channels, and in March 2024 proclaimed that she would risk all her credibility on her insistence that Mrs. Macron is biologically male.
Brigitte Macron first met her current spouse when she was a teacher at his lycée.
The two married in 2007, when the future French president was 29 and she was in her mid-50s.