A group of ten found guilty of online harassment targeting Brigitte Macron
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A Paris court has ruled against ten people for perpetrating the cyber-bullying of Brigitte Macron, the wife of France's leader, Emmanuel Macron.
The those on trial faced allegations of spreading fabrications regarding her gender identity and sexuality, in addition to publishing defamatory statements about the couple's significant age difference.
The court delivered suspended jail terms of a maximum of eight months to the defendants. The detailed judgment has yet to be released.
A circulating unfounded claim alleging that Brigitte Macron is a person assigned male at birth has existed since her husband's first electoral victory in 2017.
This Monday's court decision in France coincides with the Macrons initiating a legal action for defamation in the United States of America against conservative commentator Candace Owens, who has also voiced analogous false narratives about the Brigitte Macron's identity.
Their legal filing alleges that Owens ignored all credible evidence disproving her claim in favour of give a platform to established defamers.
Owens has often echoed these assertions on her podcast and social networks, and in March 2024 declared that she would risk all her credibility on her belief that Mrs. Macron was born a man.
Brigitte Macron initially encountered her future husband when she worked as an educator at his lycée.
The couple married in 2007, when the future French president was 29 and she was 54.