Ten found guilty of digital abuse directed at Brigitte Macron
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A court in Paris has ruled against ten people for engaging in the online harassment of Brigitte Macron, the partner of France's leader, Emmanuel Macron.
The defendants faced charges of disseminating false claims regarding her gender and sexuality, in addition to making hurtful comments about the pair's 24-year age gap.
The court issued suspended prison sentences of a maximum of eight months to the convicted individuals. The complete verdict has still to be made public.
A circulating unfounded claim alleging that Brigitte Macron is a trans woman has been in circulation since her husband's first electoral victory in 2017.
This latest legal outcome in France comes as the Macrons initiating a defamation lawsuit in the United States of America against conservative commentator Candace Owens, who has likewise promoted similar conspiracy theories about the first lady's identity.
Their legal filing states that Owens brushed aside any factual proof contradicting her allegations in favour of platforming known conspiracy theorists.
Owens has regularly repeated these allegations on her podcast and social networks, and in March 2024 declared that she would risk all her credibility on her insistence that Mrs. Macron is biologically male.
Brigitte Macron originally became acquainted with her now-husband when she taught at his high school.
The pair married in 2007, when the then-29-year-old Emmanuel Macron was 29 and she was 54.