A Paris court found 10 people guilty of cyberbullying the first lady of France, Brigitte Macron, on Monday — and no, none of them were conservative American commentator Candace Owens.
The defendants were found guilty of cyber-harassment, and all are now required to attend cyberbullying awareness training. The eight men and two women, ages 41 to 65, received sentences ranging from two to eight months in prison, to giving an apology. Sentences were given based on the seriousness of the defendant’s allegations against Macron, per CBS News.
Some of the more active social media users were banned from using the platforms where they posted comments about Macron.
The unfounded claims against Macron, 72, accused her of being born a man now living as a transgender woman, a theory that caught fire when her husband, French President Emmanuel Macron, 48, was elected to his office in 2017.
Other “harassment” claims involved the 24-year age gap between the Macrons and the eyebrow-raising chronology that ultimately led to their marriage in 2007.
The couple first met at La Providence, a high school where Brigitte Macron, then married to her first husband with three children, was teaching, and Emmanuel Macron was a student.
It was in the school’s theater program that the teacher and student began a “deeper intellectual connection,” per court documents, noting that the relationship stayed within the confines of the law.
However, “when President Macron’s parents became aware of his strong feelings for his teacher, they decided to transfer him to Lycée Henri-IV in Paris. Mrs. Macron encouraged him to leave and was confident he would fall in love with a peer. Yet, before his departure, he told her, ‘Whatever you do, I will marry you,’” the documents said.
The two stayed connected over the years and married in 2007, a year after she left her first husband.
One of the defendants in the cyberbullying case, French writer Bertrand Scholler, told reporters outside the courthouse that he would appeal his six-month prison sentence.
“This is horrible. It’s abominable,” he said, per CNN, as the court ultimately denied the argument that comments made online about Macron were satire. “This shows just how far French society is drifting toward less freedom of speech. Freedom of speech no longer exists.”
Prior to the Monday sentencing, Macron appeared on French news show TF1 and addressed the allegation made about her sexuality, and that Monday’s case is one of three she is currently battling in court.
“I’m struggling constantly,” the first lady said. “I want to help teenagers to fight against harassment, and how could I not be exemplary?”
Despite it all, some online voices are still very skeptical of her sexuality, including French investigative journalist Xavier Poussard, who wrote the book “Becoming Brigitte,” as well as political commentator/podcaster Candace Owens, against whom the Macrons filed a defamation lawsuit last July.
Owens previously said the legal pushback she is receiving from the Macrons only confirms her belief that Brigitte Macron was born male.
Poussard posted on X that he believes Macron “was born a male as Jean-Michel Trogneux and became known under the married name of her younger sister, Brigitte Auzière, since the mid-1980s.” To which Owens reposted and added that Macron is now “securing convictions for ‘cyberbullying’ against people for discussing his dark past.’”
Though Macron did not appear during the two-day trial, her daughter, Tiphaine Auzière, testified and said the conspiracies surrounding her mother have resulted in the “deterioration” of her mother’s life, per CBS News. “She cannot ignore the horrible things said about her,” Auzière said, adding that the harassment has even impacted Macron’s grandchildren.