Ten individuals convicted of cyber-bullying directed at Brigitte Macron
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A French judicial body has convicted ten people for carrying out the online harassment of Brigitte Macron, the spouse of France's leader, Emmanuel Macron.
The those on trial faced charges of spreading untruths regarding her gender and sexual orientation, in addition to publishing hurtful comments about the couple's 24-year age gap.
The court handed down suspended prison sentences of as much as eight months to the defendants. The complete verdict has still to be made public.
A longstanding false narrative suggesting that Brigitte Macron is a person assigned male at birth has been in circulation since her husband's rise to the presidency in 2017.
This latest legal outcome 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 comparable unfounded claims about the first lady's biological sex.
Their legal filing contends that Owens ignored any factual proof disproving her claim choosing instead to platforming known conspiracy theorists.
Owens has regularly repeated these assertions on her podcast and social media channels, and in March 2024 stated that she would stake her entire professional reputation on her belief that Mrs. Macron is in fact a man.
Brigitte Macron initially encountered her current spouse when she worked as an educator at his secondary school.
The couple married in 2007, when the future French president was 29 and she was approximately 54 years old.