Ten people have been found guilty of cyber bullying France's first lady Brigitte Macron.
The online claims were about her gender and sexuality, including allegations that she is a transgender woman who was born a man.
The French president's wife told TF1 ahead of the verdict that the online attacks against her appeared endless and that she launched legal action to "set an example" in the fight against harassment.
The defendants, eight men and two women aged between 41 and 65, were accused of posting numerous "particularly degrading, insulting, and malicious" comments about Ms Macron's alleged trans identity.
They were also accused of linking the 24-year age gap between Ms Macron, 72, and her husband Emmanuel Macron, 48, to paedophilia. The couple, who have been married since 2007, first met at secondary school, where he was a student and she was a teacher.
Some of the posts have been viewed tens of thousands of times.
The defendants were handed sentences ranging from cyber bullying awareness training and six-month social media bans to suspended prison sentences of up to eight months at the court in Paris.
Defendant Delphine Jegousse, 51, who also goes by Amandine Roy online, is considered to have played a major role in spreading the false rumour of Ms Macron being born a man online.
The self-proclaimed medium published a four-hour video discussing Ms Macron on her YouTube channel in 2021. She was handed a six-month suspended prison sentence.
Another defendant, Aurelien...
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