TOKYO:
A French judge placed Telegram boss Pavel Durov under formal investigation on Wednesday in an organized crime investigation into the messaging app, but allowed the businessman to post 5 million euro bail, report twice a week to police and not leave French territory.
Paris prosecutor Laure Beccauau said in a statement that the judge found there were grounds to formally investigate Durov on all the charges for which he was initially arrested four days ago.
They include suspected complicity in operating an online platform that enables illegal transactions, images of child sexual abuse, drug trafficking and fraud, as well as refusing to share information with authorities, money laundering and providing cryptographic services to criminals.
Durov’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Being under official investigation in France does not imply guilt or necessarily lead to a trial, but it does show that judges believe there is enough evidence to proceed with an investigation. Investigations can drag on for years before being sent to trial or shelved.
The judge’s ruling came after Russian-born Durov was arrested at an airport near Paris on Saturday night.
Durov’s detention has sparked debate about where free speech ends and law enforcement begins. It also highlights the uneasy relationship between governments and Telegram, which has nearly 1 billion users, while serving as a warning shot to tech titans who refuse to comply with authorities for alleged illegality on their platforms.
Russia’s state-run RIA news agency posted a video on Telegram that appeared to show Durov, dressed in black with a baseball cap and sunglasses, leaving the prosecutor’s office and getting into a waiting vehicle. Reuters was unable to verify the authenticity of the images.
Bekou said Telegram had been used in various criminal cases and that Telegram’s “almost complete lack of response to court orders” eventually drew the attention of the Paris prosecutor’s office to fight cybercrime.
“Other French investigative services and prosecutorial authorities, as well as various partners within Eurojust, particularly the Belgian ones, shared the same observation” about Telegram’s lack of compliance, Beccauau said.
That prompted the Paris organized crime prosecutor’s office to open an investigation “into the possible criminal responsibility of the directors of this messaging service for committing these crimes,” it said in its statement.
The investigation began in February, with investigations conducted by the National Juvenile Bureau, with an indictment indicted in July, Bekua said.
Telegram barely commented on Durov’s arrest.
In a statement on Monday, it said it complies with European Union laws and that its moderation is “within industry standards and constantly improving”.
“Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has nothing to hide and travels frequently to Europe,” it said. “It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner is responsible for the abuse of that platform.”
Diplomatic waves
The arrest of Durov, who holds French and Russian citizenship, had a major diplomatic impact, forging ties between Paris and Moscow.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that relations between the two nations had reached a nadir.
France has accused Russia of trying to destabilize it ahead of the Paris Olympics in response to its more aggressive stance on the Ukraine war – claims Russia has denied.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in a teleconference on Tuesday that Russia was ready to provide Durov with all necessary assistance given his Russian citizenship, but that his French citizenship complicated the situation. Durov also holds a UAE passport.
Telegram has become critical to battlefield communications in the war in Ukraine, and is used by governments and soldiers on both sides of the conflict to share news and propaganda.
Telegram is presented as a haven for free speech, but it is also widely used by far-right, anti-vaccination and conspiracy movements, as well as political dissidents.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who is known to be an avid user of the app, said Durov’s arrest was “in no way a political decision”, adding that France supports legitimate freedom of speech.
Macron had lunch with Durov in 2018 as part of a series of meetings with tech entrepreneurs, a source close to the president said, and Durov was granted French citizenship in 2021 in a rare process for high-profile individuals.
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