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A court in Paris has ruled against ten people for carrying out the online harassment of Brigitte Macron, the wife of France's leader, Emmanuel Macron.
The accused individuals faced charges of spreading false claims regarding her gender identity and sexuality, in addition to posting malicious remarks about the couple's 24-year age gap.
The court issued suspended prison sentences of a maximum of eight months to the perpetrators. The detailed judgment has yet to be released.
A persistent conspiracy theory alleging that Brigitte Macron is a trans woman has spread widely since her husband's first electoral victory in 2017.
This Monday's court decision in France coincides with the Macrons initiating a legal action for defamation in the US against right-wing influencer Candace Owens, who has likewise promoted analogous false narratives about the French president's wife's identity.
Their legal filing alleges that Owens disregarded substantial counter-evidence that refuted her assertions choosing instead to platforming known conspiracy theorists.
Owens has regularly repeated these assertions on her show and social networks, and in March 2024 declared that she would stake her entire professional reputation on her insistence that Mrs. Macron was born a man.
Brigitte Macron originally became acquainted with her future husband when she was a teacher at his high school.
The couple married in 2007, when the then-29-year-old Emmanuel Macron was 29 and she was 54.
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