Paris (France), Jan. 5 (LaPresse/AP) – A Paris court has sentenced 10 people for cyberbullying against French First Lady Brigitte Macron, handing down penalties ranging from a cyberbullying awareness course to eight months’ imprisonment with suspended sentences. The court highlighted that the defendants had made “particularly degrading, offensive, and malicious” comments, referring to false claims about Brigitte Macron’s alleged transgender identity and supposed pedophile offenses. The defendants, eight men and two women aged between 41 and 65, are accused of posting “numerous malicious comments” falsely claiming that President Emmanuel Macron’s wife was born male and linking the 24-year age difference with her husband to pedophilia. Some of the posts were viewed tens of thousands of times. Brigitte Macron did not attend the two-day trial held in October. Speaking on national TV channel TF1 on Sunday, she said she initiated legal action to “set an example” in the fight against harassment. Her daughter, Tiphaine Auzière, testified about what she described as the “deterioration” of her mother’s life since the online harassment intensified. “She cannot ignore the horrible things said about her,” Auzière told the court, adding that the impact extended to the whole family, including Macron’s grandchildren.
Brigitte Macron n’a pas assisté au procès de deux jours qui s’est tenu en octobre. Dimanche, sur la chaîne nationale TF1, elle a déclaré avoir engagé une procédure judiciaire pour « donner l’exemple » dans la lutte contre le harcèlement. Sa fille, Tiphaine Auzière, a témoigné de ce qu’elle a décrit comme la « détérioration » de la vie de sa mère depuis l’intensification du harcèlement en ligne. « Elle ne peut pas ignorer les choses horribles qui sont dites sur elle », a déclaré Auzière à la Cour, ajoutant que l’impact s’étendait à toute la famille, y compris aux petits-enfants de Macron.
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