A Paris court on Monday found ten people guilty of cyberstalking French First Lady Brigitte Macron for spreading false claims that she is a transgender woman who was born a man.

Brigitte and her husband, French President Emmanuel Macron, have long faced such claims, including allegations that she was born under the name Jean-Michel Trogneux, the name of her older brother. Monday’s ruling marks a victory for the Macrons as they pursue a separate high-profile defamation lawsuit in the United States against right-wing influencer and podcaster Candace Owens, who also claims Brigitte was born a man.

Eight men and two women were found guilty in a Paris court of making malicious comments about Brigitte Macron’s gender and sexuality, describing her as 24 years older than her husband as a “pedophile”, Reuters reported.

The convicts received a series of sentences. One received a six-month prison sentence without the possibility of parole. Others received suspended prison sentences of up to eight months. Further penalties included fines and mandatory courses on cyberbullying, and five of them were banned from using the social media platform where they posted their comments.

Some of the defendants in the case claimed their comments constituted satire, which the court rejected. Bertrand Scholler, 55, a gallerist and writer, said he would appeal his six-month suspended sentence. “This is terrible. It’s disgusting,” he told reporters in court. “This shows how much French society is moving towards less freedom of speech. Freedom of speech no longer exists.”

Speaking to TF1 on Sunday night, Brigitte Macron defended her fight against cyberbullying, hoping it would set an example for others. She said the online attacks against her seemed endless and included “people hacking the tax website and changing my identity”. She also lamented that her attackers ignored the strong evidence of her gender.

“A birth certificate is nothing. It’s a father or a mother going to register their child that says who he or she is,” she said. “I want to help teenagers fight bullying, and if I don’t set an example, it’s going to be hard.” /tesheshi.com/

Source: prizrenpost