Ten individuals found guilty of online harassment targeting Brigitte Macron
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A Paris court has ruled against ten people for engaging in the online harassment of Brigitte Macron, the wife of the President of France, Emmanuel Macron.
The those on trial faced charges of circulating fabrications regarding her gender and sexual orientation, in addition to publishing hurtful comments about the pair's 24-year age gap.
The court issued conditional custodial sentences of a maximum of eight months to the convicted individuals. The detailed judgment has still to be made public.
A circulating unfounded claim alleging that Brigitte Macron is a person assigned male at birth has spread widely since her husband's first electoral victory in 2017.
This recent ruling in France comes as the Macrons pursuing a defamation lawsuit in the United States of America against conservative commentator Candace Owens, who has also voiced similar conspiracy theories about the Brigitte Macron's identity.
Their complaint states that Owens disregarded any factual proof contradicting her allegations in favour of platforming known conspiracy theorists.
Owens has regularly repeated these assertions on her show and social media channels, and in March 2024 declared that she would bet her whole career on her insistence that Mrs. Macron is in fact a man.
Brigitte Macron initially encountered her current spouse when she was a teacher at his secondary school.
The two married in 2007, when the man who would become president was 29 and she was approximately 54 years old.
