Ten individuals sentenced of online harassment targeting Brigitte Macron
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A Paris court has convicted ten people for engaging in the online harassment of Brigitte Macron, the partner of French President, Emmanuel Macron.
The defendants faced charges of circulating untruths regarding her gender and sexuality, in addition to posting hurtful comments about the couple's 24-year age gap.
The court delivered suspended jail terms of up to eight months to the convicted individuals. The detailed judgment has not yet been published.
A longstanding false narrative claiming that Brigitte Macron is a trans woman has been in circulation since her husband's rise to the presidency in 2017.
This recent ruling in France is concurrent with the Macrons pursuing a libel case in the United States of America against conservative commentator Candace Owens, who has also voiced similar conspiracy theories about the first lady's gender.
Their legal filing states that Owens disregarded substantial counter-evidence that refuted her assertions opting to platforming known conspiracy theorists.
Owens has often echoed these assertions on her podcast and online platforms, and in March 2024 stated that she would risk all her credibility on her insistence that Mrs. Macron is in fact a man.
Brigitte Macron initially encountered her future husband when she worked as an educator at his high school.
The pair married in 2007, when the then-29-year-old Emmanuel Macron was 29 and she was approximately 54 years old.
