French police arrested Telegram CEO and founder Pavel Durov on Saturday at an airport close to Paris for alleged offenses associated to the favored messaging app, French media reported.
The French-Russian billionaire, 39, was detained at Le Bourget airport north of the French capital on Saturday night, one of many officers informed AFP, talking on situation of anonymity.
French tv information shops TF1 TV and BFM TV additionally reported the arrest, citing unnamed sources, in accordance with Reuters.
He had simply traveled from Baku, Azerbaijan, one other supply near the case informed AFP.
Durov was anticipated to look in courtroom on Sunday.
Manuel Blondeau/AOP.Press/Corbis through Getty Photos
France’s OFMIN, an company tasked with stopping violence in opposition to minors, had issued an arrest warrant for Durov because the coordinating company in a preliminary investigation into alleged offenses together with fraud, drug trafficking, cyberbullying, organized crime and promotion of terrorism, one of many sources near the case informed AFP.
Durov is suspected of failing to take motion to curb the felony use of his platform.
“Telegram abides by EU legal guidelines, together with the Digital Providers Act,” the corporate stated in an announcement on Sunday, including, “Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has nothing to cover and travels incessantly in Europe. It’s absurd to say {that a} platform or its proprietor are chargeable for abuse of that platform.”Â
French Inside Ministry and French police had no remark.
“Sufficient of Telegram’s impunity,” stated one of many investigators, including they had been stunned Durov got here to Paris understanding he was a wished man.
Durov began Telegram in 2013 and left Russia in 2014 after he was ousted from VKontakte — a preferred social networking website in Russia that he co-founded — after being pressured by the Kremlin handy over customers’ private knowledge, which he refused to do.
In a 2016 interview with “60 Minutes,” Durov stated he was “horrified” when he discovered that Telegram — which was designed to be closely encrypted in order that governments can’t entry customers’ private knowledge — was being utilized by terrorist teams just like the Islamic State to speak.
“I am personally for the privateness aspect,” Durov stated in that interview when requested whether or not privateness considerations outweighed safety dangers. “However one factor that ought to be clear is that you simply can’t make only one exception for legislation enforcement with out endangering personal communications of tons of of thousands and thousands of individuals as a result of encryption is both safe or not.”
