Russian Pavel Durov, founder of the Telegram messenger that allows sending encrypted messages, was detained on Saturday night at Paris’ Le Bourget airport, TF1 Info reported, citing its sources.
A Russian with a French passport, who flew directly from Azerbaijan, was wanted by the French justice system for failure to cooperate with law enforcement authorities in connection with the operation of a courier he created and used by criminals.
Telegram is a hotbed of criminal content
– comments TF1 Info. According to French researchers cited by the site, Telegram “has become the best platform for organized crime over the years”.
Possible charges
On Sunday, Durov, 39, could be charged with a range of crimes including terrorism, drug trafficking, fraud, money laundering and dissemination of pedophile content. After the charges are filed, the Telegram founder will be temporarily detained.
On his platform (Durov) he allowed countless crimes and offences to be committed, in which he did nothing to mitigate or cooperate (to combat them – PAP)
— a source close to the case told TF1 Info.
The French media are surprised that Durov, who knew about the possibility of arrest, appeared in France, which he had avoided until then, travelling, among others, to the United Arab Emirates, countries of the former USSR and countries in South America.
According to TF1 Info, Durov’s arrests include, among others: giving a signal to criminals operating on Telegram and pressuring European countries to combat encrypted messaging in the context of terrorist threats.
gah/PAP
