It is reported that 39-year-old Mr. Durov was arrested on Saturday evening, around 8:00 p.m., when he disembarked from his private plane on the runway of Paris-Bourges airport. The billionaire was arrested by local authorities.
It is known that he was on the FPR (Wanted Persons List) and had just arrived from Azerbaijan.
The warrant was issued because Mr. Durov did not cooperate with French law enforcement, which allegedly made him complicit in drug trafficking and other serious crimes.
It should be noted that such status was valid only if Mr. Durov was on French territory.
“He made a mistake tonight. We don’t know why…”, a source close to the investigation told the TF1-LCI channel.
Because Mr. Durov knew that he was in France persona non gratahe mainly traveled to the United Arab Emirates, South American countries. At the same time, he traveled very little in Europe and avoided countries where Telegram was closely monitored.
Investigators from ONAF (National Fraud Office of the Department of Customs) informed him of the allegations and arrested him.
In the near future, Mr. Durov is to be brought before a pre-trial judge before a possible indictment on Sunday for various crimes: complicity in terrorism, drugs, fraud, money laundering, pedophilia content.
“Mr. Durov will undoubtedly end up in the center of pre-trial detention. He has allowed countless violations and crimes to be committed on his platform, which he has done nothing to address,” said a source close to the case.
There is no doubt that P. Durov, whose assets are valued at more than 15.5 billion US dollars, will be arrested: the billionaire, according to law enforcement, has many opportunities to escape, and his defense guarantees are unlikely to convince the judges.
According to TF1, the founder of Telegram faces 20 years in prison in France. In France, Mr. Durov’s property was searched.
In addition, French intelligence services will seek access to correspondence related to criminal organizations and companies and individuals subject to sanctions.
Telegram is a hive of criminal content. The platform has now come under the spotlight for illegal match streaming, but many accounts on the service are used by organized crime.
In addition to terrorism, the most dangerous criminals use Telegram to share child pornography,” the researcher said.
Reaction in Moscow
After the French media reported on the arrest of P. Durov, the creator of the messaging program “Telegram”, the Deputy Chairman of the Russian State Duma, Vladislav Davankov, stated that he had sent an appeal to the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov with a request to ensure P. Durov’s release.
“Hardly anyone has done more than him for the development of digital services in Russia and the world. Now we need to free him. I appealed to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to urge the French authorities to release Pavel Durov from custody,” he wrote on his Telegram channel.
Ironically, the representative of the State Duma stated that P. Durov’s arrest “may have political reasons and be a means of gaining access to the personal information of Telegram users.”
“This cannot be allowed. According to media reports, law enforcement authorities believe Mr. Durov is involved in “drug trafficking, crimes against children and fraud” due to Telegram’s “restraint and lack of cooperation with law enforcement,” he added.
V. Davankov also noted that “there are no such “messengers” in the world that do not have such violations.”
“However, for some reason, no one arrests their owners and puts them in jail. And it shouldn’t happen now. If the French authorities refuse to release Pavel Durov from custody, I suggest that every effort be made to hand him over to the UAE or the Russian Federation. With his consent, of course,” he concluded.
The scandalous American journalist Tucker Carlson, famous for his love of Russian propaganda, has already reacted to Mr. Durov’s arrest – he was the one who interviewed the dictator V. Putin, giving him the opportunity to talk about his “vision” of Ukrainian history for two hours.
By the way, T. Carlson also recorded an interview with the founder of Telegram. This is what he said about P. Durov’s arrest:
“Pavel Durov left Russia when the authorities tried to take control of his Telegram social network. But in the end, it was not Putin who arrested him for allowing the public to exercise freedom of speech. It was a Western country, an ally of the Biden administration and an active member of NATO that shut him down.
Today, Pavel Durov sits in a French prison and is a living warning to any platform owner who refuses to censor the truth at the behest of governments and intelligence services. Darkness is rapidly creeping into the once free world.”
2024-08-26 05:23:31