A French court on Monday sentenced two men to jail after convicting them on charges of beating up the great-nephew of France’s first lady Brigitte Macron last month outside her family’s chocolate shop.
The court in the northern city of Amiens sentenced one of the accused to 12 months in prison and the second to 15 months for the attack on Jean-Baptiste Trogneux. A third defendant was acquitted.
The attack on Trogneux was widely condemned by French politicians, including President Emmanuel Macron who called it “unacceptable,” while pointing the finger at his opponents, whose “verbal violence” he suggested had encouraged the assault.
The attack on Trogneux in Amiens on 15 May came on the sidelines of an unsanctioned demonstration against the government’s pension reform, which the president signed into law without a parliamentary vote.
The three suspects, aged 20, 22 and 34, were originally to be tried in a fast-track process two days after the attack, but their lawyers asked for more time to prepare a defence.
