Telegram CEO To Be Arraigned After Arrest

Telegram Billionaire founder, Pavel Durov, will appear in court Sunday after being arrested at a Paris airport for offences related to his popular messaging app, sources told AFP.

The report also stated that Russia has accused France of “refusing to cooperate” following the arrest of the 39-year-old Franco-Russian billionaire at Le Bourget airport on Saturday night.

Durov had arrived from Baku, Azerbaijan, one source close to the case said.

An arrest warrant was issued for Durov by France’s OFMIN, an office tasked with preventing violence against minors in a preliminary investigation into alleged offences including fraud, drug trafficking, cyberbullying, organised crime and promotion of terrorism, one source said.

Durov is accused of failing to take action to curb the criminal use of his platform.

“Enough of Telegram’s impunity,” said one investigator who expressed surprise that Durov flew to Paris knowing he was a wanted man.

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Meanwhile, Russian authorities said they had demanded access to Durov but had no response from France.

“We immediately asked French authorities to explain the reasons for this detention and demanded that his rights be protected and that consular access be granted. Up to now, the French side is refusing to cooperate on this question,” Russia’s embassy in Paris said in a statement reported by the Ria Novosti news agency.

Businessman Elon Musk, who owns the X social media platform, posted the hashtag #FreePavel and commented in French, “Liberte Liberte! Liberte?” (Freedom Freedom! Freedom?).

Former United States presidential candidate, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, said, also on X, that “the need to protect free speech has never been more urgent.”