Telegram founder Pavel Durov transferred from police custody to court after his arrest in France

Paris
CNN
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Telegram founder Pavel Durov was released from police custody in France on Wednesday and transferred to court for questioning ahead of possible charges, prosecutors told CNN, days after his dramatic arrest at a Paris airport.

The Russian-born billionaire left the anti-fraud agency outside Paris on Wednesday afternoon in what appeared to be a police vehicle, according to a CNN producer there.

The Paris public prosecutor’s office said he would now face “initial questioning and possibly indictment” before a court in the French capital.

Durov, 39, was arrested at Paris’ Bourget airport on Saturday on an arrest warrant for Telegram’s lack of moderation. He was investigated for a number of crimes, including allegations that his platform was involved in supporting scammers, drug traffickers and distributing child pornography.

Durov’s app and its lack of content moderation have also come under fire for its use by terrorist groups and right-wing extremists.

He was detained for up to 96 hours, the maximum amount of time someone can be held under French law before charges are brought.

Durov’s arrest sparked a row over freedom of speech and raised particular concerns in both Ukraine and Russia, where freedom of speech is extremely popular and has become an important means of communication among military personnel and citizens during Moscow’s war against its neighbor.

The Kremlin has tried to allay fears in Russia about the future of the app. Russian government spokesman Dmitry Peskov tried to dispel calls for users to delete their sensitive messages on the app.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday that the decision to bring charges against Durov was “in no way political” and was a rare intervention by a French head of state in a judicial matter.

Telegram was launched in 2013 by Durov and his brother Nikolai. According to a post by Durov last month, the app now has more than 950 million users, making it one of the most used messaging platforms in the world.

Conversations in the app are encrypted, meaning law enforcement – ​​and Telegram itself – have little control over what users post.

Durov was born in the Soviet Union in 1984 and became colloquially known as the “Mark Zuckerberg of Russia” in his twenties. He left the country in 2014 and now lives in Dubai, where Telegram is headquartered. He also holds French citizenship.

His net worth is estimated at $9.15 billion, according to Bloomberg, and he has enjoyed a lavish, globetrotting lifestyle over the past decade.

But while his app has won praise from free speech groups and enabled private communications in countries with restrictive regimes, critics say it has become a safe haven for people coordinating illegal activities – including the terrorists who planned the Paris attacks in November 2015.

“You can’t make it safe from criminals and open to governments,” Durov told CNN in 2016. “It’s either safe or it’s not safe.”