French judicial authorities on Sunday evening extended the detention of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov, the day after he was arrested was arrested at a Paris airport for crimes related to the popular messaging service.
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Accompanied by his bodyguard and assistant, the 39-year-old Franco-Russian billionaire was arrested on Saturday evening at Le Bourget airport, north of the capital, a source close to the case told AFP.
The founder of Telegram had arrived from Baku, Azerbaijan, and was due to spend at least the night in Paris where he had planned a dinner, a source close to the investigation added.
The investigating judge in charge of the case on Sunday night extended the pre-trial detention, which could last up to 96 hours at most, according to another source close to the case.
Pavel Durov could then be released or brought before this judge for possible prosecution. The French agency for the prevention of violence against minors, OFMIN, had issued an arrest warrant against Durov. as part of a preliminary investigation into several crimes, including fraud, drug trafficking, cyberstalking, organized crime and promoting terrorism, one of the sources said.
Durov is suspected of failing to take action to prevent the use of the Telegram platform for criminal purposes. In a statement on Sunday evening, Telegram said its CEO “has nothing to hide and frequently travels to Europe.”
“Telegram complies with EU laws, including the Digital Services Act. Its moderation actions are within industry standards,” the Dubai-based company said in a statement on the app.
“It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner is responsible for abuses” on that platform, he added.
France “refuses to cooperate”
“Enough of Telegram’s impunity,” said one investigator in the case, who noted that they were taken by surprise by Durov’s arrival in Paris, knowing that he was wanted.
Russia accused France of “refusing to cooperate.” Russian authorities said they had requested access to Durov but had received no response from France. “We immediately asked the French authorities to explain the reasons for this detention and demanded that his rights be protected and consular access granted.
“So far, the French side has refused to cooperate on this issue,” the Russian embassy in Paris said in a statement carried by the Ria Novosti news agency.
Russian Foreign Minister Maria Zakharova said Moscow had requested consular access to Durov, but that since he also has French nationality, “France considers it his primary nationality.”
Entrepreneur Elon Musk, owner of the social network X, posted the hashtag #FreePavel (#PavelLibre) and commented in French “Liberté Liberté! Liberté?” (Freedom Freedom! Freedom?).
Telegram has positioned itself as an alternative to American messaging platforms, which have been criticised for their commercial exploitation of users’ personal data.
The encrypted messaging app has pledged to never reveal information about its users.
In an interview with right-wing US host Tucker Carlson in April, Durov said he got the idea to launch an encrypted messaging app after coming under pressure from the Russian government while working at VK, a social network he created before selling it and leaving Russia in 2014.
The entrepreneur, who based the app in Dubai, praising the city’s “neutrality,” told Carlson that people “love the independence. They also love the privacy, the freedom, there are many reasons why someone would switch to Telegram.”
Durov said the app had more than 900 million active users. Being based in the United Arab Emirates, Telegram was protected from moderation laws, amid pressure from Western countries on major platforms to remove illegal content.
Telegram allows groups of up to 200,000 members, prompting accusations that it facilitates the viral spread of false information, as well as users spreading neo-Nazi, pedophile, conspiracy and terrorist content.
Competing messaging service WhatsApp introduced global limits on message forwarding in 2019 after it was accused of allowing the spread of false information in India that led to lynchings
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