A Paris ​court on Monday found ten people guilty ⁠of the cyber-harassment of France's first lady, Brigitte Macron, for spreading false claims she is a transgender ​woman who was born a man. The court convicted all defendants to sentences ranging from a cyberbullying awareness training to 8-month suspended prison sentences.

Paris

A Paris court has convicted ten people of cyberbullying French First Lady Brigitte Macron after they propagated false claims about her gender. The individuals received suspended prison sentences ranging from four to eight months, with some also banned from social media for six months. All were ordered to pay €10,000 in damages to Macron and a €600 fine each, as well as to complete training on online behavior and digital crime prevention.

The judge stated that Macron suffered proven mental health damages as a result of the harassment. The convicted parties have ten days to appeal the verdict. This case follows previous legal actions by the Macrons, including a defamation case that was overturned on appeal, and precedes a pending lawsuit against American commentator Candace Owens for similar claims.

Ten people found guilty of cyberbullying Brigitte Macron

Also here in France, a Paris court has found 10 people guilty of cyber bullying after they were accused of spreading false claims about French First Lady Brigitte Macron, propagating claims that she was a born a man. For more on this story we can cross live to that courthouse and speak with our reporter Antonia Kerrigan who's standing by. Antonia, tell us more about this verdict. Well the judge was absolutely unequivocal. As you say, all 10 individuals were found guilty and received suspended sentences, prison sentences of different durations ranging from four to eight months. Those are of course sentences that they will not serve unless they commit a further offence. Some have also been handed down a six-month suspension on using their social media accounts due to the perceived gravity of the content they were sharing. The other thing that was handed down across the board is the requirement to follow a training on awareness raising on online behaviour including the prevention of digital crimes such as cyber harassment. Now the judge said that the damages suffered by the First Lady, the recognisable degradation to her mental health, had been proven and as such she has been awarded 10,000 euros in damages which the various accused between them will have to pay out as well as a fine they will have to pay of 600 euros each. Now so the judge has made it unequivocally clear that he considers that she has suffered damages due to cyber harassment. The various accused of course have 10 days to appeal and it is very likely that certainly several of them will do so. And Antonia these are false claims that have gained international traction and it's not the only legal battle that the Macron's have launched. Tell us about that. That's quite right. So there was already a guilty verdict against two individuals, one involved in today's case, one whose case has been separated in the cyber harassment trial, but two individuals were found guilty of defamation at the end of 2024. This verdict however was quashed at appeal in 2025. Now that is because these false claims fall in a gray area between both freedom of expression on the one hand and an individual's right to be protected against defamation and harassment on the other hand. And now many of the defendants in this trial of course argued that their comments were a matter of information, that they have the right to share this kind of content whether or not it may offend and others also claimed of course that what they said was satire. The Macron couple are appealing the quashed judgment last year on defamation and they will be pleased of course from about the verdict today and of course the next major trial will be the lawsuit against American commentator Candace Owens who has released a series of videos as well as a book entitled Becoming Brigitte, really propagating, building off some of the claims made by these French right-wing influencers which have been widely publicized in France, bringing the Macron couple to bring legal action there too. All right, Antonia Kerrigan, thank you very much for that update from the courthouse.

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