Monday, December 16, 2024 - Four men will appear in court next year in Paris over allegations they harassed French First Lady Brigitte Macron online, including likening her to a ‘paedophile'.
Recall that disinformation on Macron's gender has circulated
on social media for years, and she has also been attacked over the 24-year age
difference with President Emmanual Macron.
In August, Brigitte Macron filed a complaint and authorities
opened an investigation into cyberharassment and incitement to commit an
offence, the public prosecutor said.
A hearing in July next year will concern "malicious
comments about Brigitte Macron's gender and sexuality, as well as her age
difference with her husband... likening her to a paedophile," prosecutors
said.
A trial is scheduled for the end of October.
The relationship between the president, 46, and his wife,
71, who met while she was a teacher and he was a teenager, is a source of media
attention in France and abroad.
Among the accused is Aurelien Poirson-Atlan, born in 1984, a
publicist known on social media as "Zoe Sagan", who is often linked
with conspiracy theory circles.
Poirson-Atlan's lawyer, Juan Branco, denounced the charges
and accused the public prosecutor of taking an "obvious political
direction".
Among the posts spread on social media is disinformation
claiming that the first lady, formerly Brigitte Trogneux, had never existed and
that her brother Jean-Michel had changed gender and assumed that identity.
In September, a French court ordered two women to pay 8,000
euros ($8,400) in damages to Macron after falsely claiming she was transgender,
sparking online rumour-mongering by conspiracy theorists and the far right.
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