A Paris court has found 10 people guilty of being involved in the cyber-harassment of President Emmanuel Macron’s wife, Brigitte.
On Monday, the defendants, including eight men and two women aged between 41 and 65, were found guilty of making malicious comments about Brigitte Macron’s gender and sexuality and equating her age difference with her husband to “paedophilia”.
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Macron, 48, and the first lady, 72, who met while she was a drama teacher at his school, have been the subject of intense interest since he became president in 2017.
For Brigitte Macron, allegations swirled on social media that she was born under the name of Jean-Michel Trogneux, the name of her brother.
On Monday, eight people were handed suspended sentences of four to eight months in prison. The ninth man was sentenced to six months in jail after he was absent from the hearing, and the final person was ordered to follow a course against hate speech online.
Of those on trial, in advance of the sentencing, prosecutors sought the heaviest sentence against Aurelien Poirson-Atlan, 41, also known on social media as Zoe Sagan.
Another of the most prominent defendants, gallery owner Bertrand Scholler, 56, said the trial was targeting his “freedom to think” faced with the “media deep state”.
While the Macrons largely ignored the falsehoods, they recently launched court cases challenging the comments.
Her daughter, Tiphaine Auziere, testified about what she described as the “deterioration” of her mother’s life since the online harassment intensified. “She cannot ignore the horrible things said about her,” Auziere told the court. She said the impact extended to the entire family, including Macron’s grandchildren.
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On Sunday night, Brigitte told the French television channel TF1 that she hoped her fight against cyberbullying would serve as an example to others.
“A birth certificate is not nothing. It is a father or a mother who goes to declare their child, who says who he is or who she is,” she said.
“I want to help adolescents to fight against harassment, and if I do not set an example, it will be difficult,” she added.
The Macrons are also pursuing a high-profile defamation lawsuit in the United States against right-wing influencer Candace Owens, who has also alleged that Brigitte was born male.
Several of those on trial in Paris shared posts from the right-wing influencer.
