PARIS: Telegram chief executive Pavel Durov is to appear in court after being arrested at a Paris airport for offences related to his popular messaging app, sources said.
Russia has accused France of "refusing to cooperate" following the arrest of the Franco-Russian billionaire, 39, at Le Bourget airport on Saturday night. Durov had arrived from Baku, Azerbaijan, a source close to the case said.
France's OFMIN, an office tasked with preventing violence against minors, had issued an arrest warrant for Durov 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.
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.
Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Moscow had asked for consular access to 39-year-old Durov, saying that as he also had French citizenship "France considers that it is his main nationality".
Businessman Elon Musk posted the hashtag #FreePavel on the X social media platform he owns and commented in French, "Liberte Liberte! Liberte?"
Former US presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr said, also on X, that "the need to protect free speech has never been more urgent".
The encrypted messaging app has positioned itself as an alternative to US-owned platforms, which have been criticised for their commercial exploitation of users' personal data. Telegram has committed to never disclosing information about its users.
In a rare interview, Durov said he got the idea to launch an encrypted messaging app after coming under pressure from the Russian government while working at VK, a social network he created before selling it. — AFP
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