TELEGRAM CEO, DUROV ARRESTED BY FRENCH POLICE
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Telegram founder Pavel Durov, a Russian national with multiple citizenships, including French, UAE, Saint Kitts and Nevis, has been taken into custody upon arrival at Paris-Le Bourget Airport.
It was gathered that Durov’s private jet landed in Paris from Azerbaijan around 8pm local time on Saturday.
According to RT, the 39-year-old entrepreneur, who obtained French citizenship in 2021, was accompanied by a woman and his bodyguard at the time of his detention.
Reports stated that the French authorities issued an arrest warrant for the tech entrepreneur as part of a preliminary investigation. Paris believes that Telegram’s insufficient moderation, its encryption tools and alleged lack of cooperation with police could make Durov complicit of in drug trafficking, pedophilia offenses and fraud.
Broadcaster TF1 claimed that Durov is going to appear before a judge tonight. He could be facing up to 20 years in prison, it added.
Due to being a French citizen, the Telegram founder may also face accusations of violating sanctions imposed on Moscow by the EU due to his contacts in Russia.
Durov’s arrest warrant was only legitimate on the territory of France.
“He made a mistake tonight. We don’t know why,” a source close to the investigation told TF1-LCI. “In any case, he’s locked up.”
Telegram was launched in 2013 and currently has more than 950 million active monthly users. Durov is a native of St. Petersburg, Russia, but has been mostly been living in the UAE since the mid-2010s. He became a French and an Emirati citizen in 2021.
Durov in an interview granted to an American journalist and political commentator Tucker Carlson, April, spoke about his disagreements with the Russian government, as well as the pressure he faced in the US.
He said that the American government had wanted him to set up a surveillance “backdoor” on his messaging service, and he refused.
Reacting, X owner, Elon Musk also condemned the reported arrest. “POV: It’s 2030 in Europe and you’re being executed for liking a meme,” he wrote in a comment to the news story.
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