Pavel Durov, Franco-Russian (French nutritionalized in 2021) billionaire and CEO of Telegram was arrested at Le Bourget airport last Saturday and indicted Wednesday evening, after spending 4 days in detention (police custody)
Pavel Durov - Wikipedia
The French justice system accuses Pavel Durov of not acting against the dissemination of criminal content on his application, which could cost him heavy sanctions
(In total, the judicial investigation opened against him on July 8th concerns twelve offenses)
Source: Paris prosecutor, Laure Beccuau
Knowing that he fled Russia to protect the privacy of his users by refusing to give the FSB access to our information
The founder of Telegram was released and is subject to heavy judicial control,
which provides for the obligation to pay a bail of 5 million euros or about $5.5 million and to report to the police station twice a week, and a ban on leaving French territory
Source: Paris prosecutor, Laure Beccuau
Pavel Durov risks up to ten years in prison.
Billionaire's lawyer, David-Olivier Kaminski, said that :
"it is totally absurd to think that the head of a social network could be involved in criminal acts that do not concern him, neither directly nor indirectly"
After Mr. Durov’s arrest, the company, which is based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, said that it abides by E.U. laws and that “it is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform.”
In addition, Pavel Durov is also the subject of an investigation for "serious violence" against one of his children, the youngest (complaint filed by his wife in Switzerland)
International reactions :
Elon Musk reacted by creating #FreePavel before publishing a new message saying
"Liberté, Liberté! Liberté?"
(Liberté = Freedom)
"The arrest of Pavel Durov is an attack on the basis of human rights to communicate"
whistleblower Edward Snowden further lashed out
"I am surprised and deeply saddened that Emmanuel Macron has stooped to the point of taking hostages in order to gain access to private communications. This demeans not only France, but the entire world"
Dmitry Peskov, the spokesman for the Russian presidency, said on Tuesday that :
"the accusations made are very serious and they require equally solid evidence"
denouncing an "attempt at intimidation"
Source : France Bleu
Breaking news :
"Telegram CEO, Pavel Durov, asked to have French billionaire Xavier Niel notified of his detention on Saturday evening, BFMTV has learned, confirming information from AFP. This is the first call that the Telegram CEO made, but it is not known whether he managed to speak to the Free CEO on the phone. Contacted by AFP, Xavier Niel's entourage has not yet responded"
"The founder of Iliad is one of the big bosses close to President Emmanuel Macron. According to another source close to the case, Pavel Durov mentioned during his police custody his ties with the head of state in particular. The two men had lunch together in 2018. For reasons that the authorities never wanted to communicate" (BFMTV)
