The lawyer of Telegram boss Pavel Durov, arrested in France, has described his detention as “absolutely ridiculous” and amounted to an attack on freedom of expression.
Durov was detained by French police after his private jet landed at Le Bourget airport in Paris on Saturday, French media reported.
According to authorities, the 39-year-old billionaire was arrested as part of an investigation into Telegram’s lack of moderators – something the app has previously denied.
The Telegram boss is facing accusations for not taking measures to curb the criminal uses of Telegram.
The app is accused of not complying with regulations making it easy for unscrupulous users of the app to commit crimes like drug trafficking, child pornography and fraud, while using the app.
His lawyer, Dmitry Agranovsky, told the Russian news outlet RIA Novosti that the accusations were similar to those brought against a car manufacturer for an accident or for using its cars to commit crimes.
Pavel Durov was born in Russia but lives in Dubai. He is both a citizen of the United Arab Emirates and France.
Telegram is especially popular in Russia, Ukraine and the states of the former Soviet Union. The app was banned in Russia in 2018, after an earlier refusal by Durov to hand over user data. The ban was lifted in 2021.
Telegram is one of the leading social media platforms after Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok and Wechat.
Pavel Durov founded Telegram in 2013. He left Russia in 2014 after refusing to comply with government demands to shut down opposition communities on his VKontakte social platform, which he sold.
The Russian embassy in France on Sunday wrote on Facebook that it wanted to “clarify the reasons for the detention and ensure the protection of Durov’s rights and facilitate consular access.”
Source: BBC News
