PARIS: A Paris court on Monday convicted 10 people of online harassment of France’s First Lady Brigitte Macron for spreading false claims about her gender.
The defendants, eight men and two women aged between 41 and 60, were found guilty of posting or reposting malicious content on social media falsely claiming that Brigitte Macron was born male, French media and public broadcaster France Info reported.
The court handed down sentences ranging from compulsory courses on understanding online harassment to suspended prison terms of up to eight months.
One defendant, a property developer who did not attend the hearings, received a six-month suspended prison sentence.
Some of the convicts were also banned from accessing the social media platforms on which the harassment took place.
False claims and online abuse
The court found that the defendants had made or shared false and malicious claims about Brigitte Macron’s gender, including the allegation that she was born under the name Jean-Michel Trogneux — in fact the name of her older brother.
Some of the posts also equated the 24-year age gap between Brigitte Macron and her husband President Emmanuel Macron to “paedophilia”, the court heard.
The allegations, which have circulated online for several years, have been repeatedly denied by the Macrons.
Findings of the court
According to the ruling, the online attacks went beyond criticism and amounted to cyber-harassment. Among those convicted were a school sports teacher, an art gallery owner and a publicist.
The court said the comments had caused personal harm to the First Lady and contributed to a sustained campaign of abuse.
Monday’s ruling comes as the Macrons pursue a separate defamation lawsuit in the United States against conservative podcaster and influencer Candace Owens, who has amplified the same false claims.
According to the US lawsuit, the assertion that Brigitte Macron is a man named Jean-Michel Trogneux is “completely false”.
It states that Trogneux, now 80, is Brigitte Macron’s brother and lives in the northern French town of Amiens, where the family is well known for its chocolate business.
Impact on family
During the trial, Brigitte Macron’s daughter, Tiphaine Auzière, a 41-year-old lawyer, told the court that the false claims had severely affected her mother’s quality of life.
She said the First Lady worried constantly about her appearance and that the harassment had led to a deterioration in her health.
Auzière added that the attacks had also affected the wider family, including Brigitte Macron’s grandchildren.
“Not a day or a week goes by when someone does not talk about this to her,” she told the court, according to French media.
Brigitte Macron speaks out
Speaking to broadcaster TF1 on Sunday night, ahead of the verdict, Brigitte Macron said the online attacks felt endless.
She said some attackers had even broken into her tax account online and altered her personal details.
“They are playing with my family tree, claiming I’m a man,” she said.
She stressed that official documents clearly proved her identity. “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.
Brigitte Macron said she hoped her legal fight would set an example for young people facing online bullying.
“I want to help teenagers fight against bullying, and if I do not set an example, it will be difficult,” she said.
