The Paris Correctional Court this Monday sentenced the ten accused of cyberbullying the French first lady, to sentences of four and eight months in prison, which they will only have to serve behind bars in case of recidivism, except for one who will have to go to prison for not attending the trial.
In addition, all of them will have to pay jointly to the wife of the French president, , compensation of 10,000 euros for moral damages and another 600 euros for legal costs.
The judges also imposed awareness-raising courses on respect for people online and, in particular, on the issue of cyberbullying, lasting one or two days, which they will have to pay for themselves.
The ten received a complementary sentence that will prevent them from running as candidates to any election for two years and four of them have access to the online accounts they used to harass Brigitte Macron suspended for six months.
The convicts, who spread hoaxes that Brigitte Macron was born a man and that she was a transgender woman, as well as malicious comments about the age difference between the first lady and the French president, They are between 41 and 65 years oldand very disparate professions, among which stand out everything from a psychic to a stockbroker, including a local elected official, a writer or a gallery owner.
When reading the sentence in the courtroom, in which only two of the defendants were present, the president of the court insisted that it has been proven that the ten voluntarily published “malicious” and “insulting” messages against the first lady.
Specifically, they questioned whether she is a woman and spoke of alleged pedocriminality due to her relationship with Emmanuel Macron when the two met when the current head of state was a minor and she was a theater teacher, taking into account their age difference (24 years).
The judges emphasized in their sentence that those now convicted “could not ignore that they participated in massive harassment” that “had the intention to harm the complainant”who in his statements has shown that this damaged his physical or mental health and has affected his life, especially due to the impact he fears it is having on his loved ones, particularly his grandchildren.
Delphine Jégousse, a medium who goes by the name Amandine Roy, and the gallery owner Bertrand Schollerwho in statements to the press later complained that this sentence means the end of freedom of expression in France.
“It is a decision with which if you say something that the one in charge does not like, it will allow you to be sentenced,” stressed Scholler, who considers that this sentence is an “intimidation” that weighs on everyone and a threat to democracy.
“Today the truth is being killed, the possibility of the truth is being killed,” he added.
