Ten convicted of cyber-bullying targeting Brigitte Macron
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A French judicial body has ruled against ten people for perpetrating the online harassment of Brigitte Macron, the partner of France's leader, Emmanuel Macron.
The defendants faced charges of spreading fabrications regarding her gender identity and sexual orientation, in addition to publishing defamatory statements about the pair's 24-year age gap.
The court delivered suspended jail terms of up to eight months to the perpetrators. The detailed judgment has yet to be released.
A persistent unfounded claim alleging that Brigitte Macron is a trans woman has existed since her husband's rise to the presidency in 2017.
This Monday's court decision in France comes as the Macrons initiating a defamation lawsuit in the United States of America against political commentator Candace Owens, who has also voiced similar conspiracy theories about the French president's wife's biological sex.
Their lawsuit contends that Owens ignored all credible evidence that refuted her assertions in favour of give a platform to established defamers.
Owens has often echoed these claims on her show and online platforms, and in March 2024 proclaimed that she would risk all her credibility on her belief that Mrs. Macron is in fact a man.
Brigitte Macron first met her now-husband when she was a teacher at his secondary school.
The couple entered into matrimony in 2007, when the future French president was 29 and she was approximately 54 years old.
