Ten individuals convicted of digital abuse targeting Brigitte Macron
Photo source
A court in Paris has convicted ten people for carrying out the online harassment of Brigitte Macron, the spouse of French President, Emmanuel Macron.
The those on trial faced charges of disseminating false claims regarding her gender identity and sexuality, in addition to making malicious remarks about the husband and wife's significant age difference.
The court delivered conditional custodial sentences of a maximum of eight months to the convicted individuals. The detailed judgment has not yet been published.
A longstanding unfounded claim suggesting that Brigitte Macron is a person assigned male at birth has been in circulation since her husband's first electoral victory in 2017.
This recent ruling in France is concurrent with the Macrons initiating a legal action for defamation in the US against political commentator Candace Owens, who has also voiced similar conspiracy theories about the French president's wife's gender.
Their lawsuit contends that Owens brushed aside substantial counter-evidence contradicting her allegations choosing instead to give a platform to established defamers.
Owens has regularly repeated these allegations on her podcast and online platforms, and in March 2024 declared that she would bet her whole career on her belief that Mrs. Macron was born a man.
Brigitte Macron originally became acquainted with her current spouse when she was a teacher at his secondary school.
The pair entered into matrimony in 2007, when the man who would become president was 29 and she was in her mid-50s.
