Durov was released on bail of five million euros. He is banned from leaving France and must report to the police twice a week.
Durov is charged with conspiring to operate an online platform that enables illegal transactions in an organized group.
He is accused of refusing to provide the information requested by the authorities, of participating in the distribution of hacker software, of distributing pornographic images of minors in an organized group, of distributing drugs and participating in fraud in an organized group, as well as of money laundering.
Durov has also been accused of providing cryptographic services with the aim of ensuring confidentiality without mandatory declaration and illegal provision and import of cryptographic means.
If convicted, Durov faces ten years in prison.
The Paris prosecutor’s office has stated that “Telegram” does not actually respond to court requests, which was also pointed out by representatives of other European Union (EU) countries, such as Belgium.
The prosecutor’s office started the preliminary investigation in the Durov case in February 2024, and the court investigation began on July 8.
According to reports, Durov was detained on Saturday at Paris Le Bourget airport on the basis of a criminal case initiated in July on suspicion of 12 possible criminal offences.
Agencies AFP and “France Info” report that Durov is also suspected of “serious acts of violence” against one of his children. The case was recently initiated by the French child welfare authority and concerns Durov board, born in 2017, who currently lives in Switzerland.
The investigation is also being conducted by the EU institutions, which believe that Telegram may have reduced the number of users in the territory of the bloc in order to avoid compliance with the rules applied to large IT companies, reports the newspaper “Financial Times”.
2024-08-29 09:53:26