The UAE announced that it has submitted an urgent request to the French government to provide all consular services to the founder of the Telegram application, Pavel Durov, as an Emirati citizen, who was arrested in France two days ago.
The Emirates News Agency (WAM) reported that the UAE is “closely following the case of Emirati citizen Pavel Durov, who was arrested by the French authorities at Bourget Airport” in Paris.
The agency added: “The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicated in a statement that caring for citizens, preserving their interests, following up on their affairs, and providing them with all aspects of care are a top priority for the UAE.”
Telegram founder Pavel Durov, 39, has been the talk of the town in recent days after being arrested by French authorities in Paris on charges of allowing criminal activity on his app, which he founded in 2013 and has grown to become a global platform that does not interfere much in content monitoring.
CNN described Durov as having the genius of Mark Zuckerberg, the strange habits of Jack Dorsey (former CEO of Twitter), the libertarianism of Elon Musk, and an obsession with having children.
Durov’s fortune as of August 25 is estimated at $15.5 billion, and he currently ranks 120th on the Forbes billionaires list.
He founded Telegram in Berlin before moving to Dubai in 2017, where he opened Telegram’s headquarters in the city in the same year. He obtained Emirati citizenship in February 2021 after residing in Dubai since 2017, and also obtained French citizenship in 2021.
Durov, who was accompanied by his bodyguard and assistant, was arrested on Saturday at Bourget Airport (north of Paris).
Durov arrived in Paris from the Azerbaijani capital Baku, and was planning to have dinner in the French capital.
The billionaire was placed in pre-trial detention as part of a judicial investigation opened by the National Judicial Authority for the Fight against Organized Crime (GONALCO) on July 8, relating to 12 crimes, according to a statement by the Paris prosecutor, Laure Picot.
Last update: August 27, 2024 – 20:09
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2024-08-28 23:47:31