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The court in Paris finds ten people guilty of cyberbullying French first lady Brigitte Macron
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The court in Paris finds ten people guilty of cyberbullying French first lady Brigitte Macron

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A Paris court has found 10 people guilty of cyberbullying French President Emmanuel Macron’s wife Brigitte by spreading false claims about her gender identity and innuendo regarding the couple’s age difference.
The defendants, eight men and two women aged 41 to 65, are accused of posting “numerous malicious comments” falsely claiming that Brigitte Macron was assigned male at birth and linking their 24-year age difference to pedophilia.
The relationship between Emmanuel Macron, 48, and Brigitte, 72, who met when she was a drama teacher at his school, has been the subject of intense interest since he became president in 2017.
Eight suspects received suspended sentences of four to eight months in prison, while a ninth man was sentenced to six months in prison for his absence from the hearing.

President Thierry Donard described the claims of the French first lady’s “alleged pedophilia” as “malicious, degrading and insulting”, and said the defendants had been punished for “intentionally causing harm to the complainant”.

The age difference between French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte has come under scrutiny online in recent years. Source: MONKEY / Sopa images / sipa usa / dimendra haria

She and a tenth person were ordered to take a course against online hate speech at their own expense.

Three people considered key instigators online also had their social media accounts suspended for six months.
“The most important things are the prevention courses and the suspension of some accounts” of the perpetrators, Jean Ennochi, Brigitte Macron’s lawyer, said after the verdict was handed down.
In recent years, the investigation into the couple’s relationship has expanded to the widespread publication of false information that they decided not to ignore and instead fight in court.

The couple filed a defamation lawsuit in the United States against right-wing American podcaster Candace Owens, who falsely claimed that Brigitte Macron was a transgender woman.

Tiphaine Auziere, 41, Brigitte Macron’s youngest daughter from her first marriage, told the trial in rare public comments that the unsubstantiated claims had damaged her mother’s health.
“She has to constantly pay attention to what she wears and how she holds herself because she knows her image can be distorted,” she said.
Prosecutors sought the harshest sentence against Aurelien Poirson-Atlan, 41, a commentator known on social media as “Zoe Sagan” and often linked to conspiracy theory circles.
He was given an eight-month suspended sentence and a six-month suspension from his social media accounts.

In October he defended in court his right to what he called ‘satire’.

Another of the most prominent defendants, gallery owner Bertrand Scholler, 56, said the trial targeted his “freedom to think” in the face of the “deep media state.” The court sentenced Scholler to a six-month suspended sentence and an immediate suspension of his social media accounts for six months.
Also on trial was a woman who was already the subject of a defamation complaint filed by Brigitte Macron in 2022: Delphine Jegousse, 51, a self-proclaimed spiritual medium under the pseudonym Amandine Roy.
The court sentenced Jegousse to a suspended prison sentence of six months and the suspension of her online accounts, also for six months.

While these three defendants are considered the main instigators of the spread of false information, the other seven were presented by prosecutors as “followers” who had “gone off” from “their bank,” with some simply sharing or liking a few posts.

Claims amplified by conspiracy theorists

These claims emerged as early as Macron’s election in 2017 and were amplified by far-right circles and conspiracy theorists in France and the US, where transgender rights have become a hot topic at the heart of America’s culture wars.
In the case against Owens, who produced a series titled Becoming Brigitte, the Macrons plan to offer “scientific” evidence and photos proving the first lady is not transgender, their US attorney said. Several of those on trial in Paris shared messages from the American influencer.
– With additional reporting by Associated Press via the Australian Associated Press

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