2024-08-27 16:45:33
Telegram founder
Multi-billionaire Pavel Durov arrested – serious allegations
27.08.2024 – 11:40 a.m.Reading time: 3 min.
Even two days after his arrest, Telegram founder Pavel Durov remains in custody. There is now new information.
The founder of the messaging service Telegram, Pavel Durov, remains in police custody after his arrest in France. This was extended over the weekend and may last up to 48 hours, according to the Paris public prosecutor’s office. It specified the allegations on Monday evening. French President Emmanuel Macron also got involved.
Macron wrote on the online platform X that the arrest was not a political decision, but was part of an ongoing investigation. France is committed to freedom of expression and communication, innovation and entrepreneurship.
According to the public prosecutor’s office, preliminary investigations against Durov have been underway for some time. The suspicion is that he is complicit in drug trafficking, money laundering, fraud and several offenses related to child abuse due to his lack of intervention at Telegram and inadequate cooperation with authorities.
He was also accused of failing to cooperate with authorities in legally permissible wiretapping measures. The Franco-Russian was therefore wanted by the authorities.
The messenger has also been criticized in other countries for years because of its dubious deletion practices. Among other things, the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” reports that criminal gangs in Denmark are specifically recruiting Swedish youths as contract killers through the service.
In Germany, there are always discussions about how to take action against the messenger. Two years ago, Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser wanted to have the Telegram app removed from the Google and Apple app stores due to a lack of cooperation.
Durov was unexpectedly arrested on Saturday evening at Le Bourget airport near Paris, as the broadcasters TF1 and BFMTV and other French media reported, citing investigators. It was initially unclear why he travelled from Azerbaijan to France.
The Russian embassy in France has already taken up the case, said a statement from the Foreign Ministry in Moscow quoted by the Russian state news agency Tass.
The French authorities have been called upon to allow consular access to Durov, said Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. “The only problem is that Durov also has French citizenship,” she said. “Accordingly, France will see him first and foremost as its citizen.” Durov’s relationship with the Russian authorities is considered difficult.
The Kremlin officially denied that President Vladimir Putin met Durov during his state visit to Azerbaijan last week. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov was responding to speculation on social networks that Durov might have spoken to Putin in Baku or at least tried to arrange a meeting. “We do not yet know what Durov is specifically accused of,” Peskov said. That is why they will refrain from commenting.
Meanwhile, Vyacheslav Volodin, chairman of the Russian State Duma, said the arrest was made without providing any evidence and was rather an attempt by the US and France to gain control of Telegram.
“Telegram is one of the few and largest internet platforms over which the US has no influence,” said Volodin. “On the eve of the US presidential election, it is important for (President Joe) Biden to bring Telegram under control.”
Numerous international newspapers have commented on Durov’s arrest. The “Neue Zürcher Zeitung” welcomes the action: “In Western countries with a functioning democracy, where statements by opposition figures and conspiracy theorists are protected by freedom of expression, Telegram does more harm than good because it enables terrible crimes,” it says.
But: In Russia, Telegram is “one of the few remaining channels for opposition members that is not monitored and censored.” This makes the platform valuable, even though it fuels crimes there too.
The Russian government newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta writes: “The messenger is popular, people talk in chats about all sorts of things – most about their affairs, football and kittens, but some about drug trafficking, extremism and the like.”