Pavel Durov. Photo: Bloomberg via Getty Images
Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov was arrested on Saturday evening at Le Bourget airport in a Paris suburb.
source: French TV channel TF1
Details: Durov was reportedly arrested on Saturday evening at around 8pm (9pm Kyiv time – ed.) as he disembarked from his private jet onto the runway at Le Bourget airport. The 39-year-old Russian with a French passport was accompanied by his bodyguard and a woman.
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Durov, who is wanted in France, is from Azerbaijan. France had previously issued a search warrant against him.
Investigators believe that Durov’s lack of cooperation with law enforcement agencies, as well as the tools provided by Telegram, make him an accomplice in drug trafficking, pedophile crimes and fraud, the publication said.
In France, Durov is accused of failing to take action against the criminal use of the Telegram messaging service by his followers, of failing to moderate the service and of failing to cooperate with the investigation.
“End Telegram’s impunity,” said one of the investigators, who was surprised that the billionaire, knowing he was wanted in France, still decided to come to Paris. “Perhaps out of a sense of impunity,” suggested one of the sources familiar with the case.
It is noted that Durov is due to appear before an investigating judge on Saturday evening before possibly being charged on Sunday with a range of offences.
His pre-trial detention after the charges are brought is almost certain, the publication said.
background:
- Founded in 2013 by Pavel Durov and his brother Nikolai, Telegram is a service that encrypts messages from start to finish. The service is headquartered in Dubai. It positions itself against US platforms that have been criticized for the commercial use of personal data. Telegram’s management has promised never to reveal information about its users.
- In an interview in Dubai last April, Durov described how he came up with the idea of launching the encrypted messaging service after coming under intense pressure from Russian authorities when he founded VKontakte, the social network he built before selling it and leaving Russia in 2014.
- Telegram has been accused of increasing the viral potential of false information and spreading hateful, neo-Nazi, pedophile, conspiracy-theoretical or terrorist content.
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