Eight people received suspended prison sentences and one person was imprisoned for posting “numerous malicious comments” that falsely claimed President Emmanuel Macron’s wife was born a man.
A Paris court found Monday, January 5, 10 people guilty of cyber-harassing France’s First Lady Brigitte Macron. The court pointed to “particularly degrading, insulting, and malicious” comments referring to false claims regarding alleged trans identity and alleged pedo criminality targeting Brigitte Macron.One defendant was sentenced to six months in prison, while eight were handed suspended sentences between four and eight months. All 10 were mandated to attend cyberbullying awareness training.
The court pointed to “particularly degrading, insulting, and malicious” comments referring to false claims regarding alleged trans identity and alleged pedo criminality targeting Brigitte Macron. “Repeated publications have had cumulative harmful effects,” the court said.
Presiding judge Thierry Donard described the claims of the French first lady’s “alleged paedophilia” as “malicious, degrading and insulting,” saying the defendants had received sentences for “intentionally harming the complainant.”n recent years scrutiny of the couple’s relationship has extended to the widespread publication of false information which they have resolved not to ignore and instead combat in court.
The French president and first lady have filed a defamation lawsuit in the United States against right-wing US podcaster Candace Owens who falsely claimed the spouse of the French president used to be a man.
Emerging as early as Macron’s election in 2017, the claims have been amplified by far-right and conspiracy theorist circles in France and in the United States, where transgender rights have become a hot-button issue at the heart of American culture wars
