French President Emmanuel Macron has stated that Pavel Durov’s arrest occurred “in the framework of an ongoing judicial investigation.” The Russian billionaire was arrested on Saturday night at a Paris airport.
The French president, Emmanuel Macroninsisted Monday afternoon that the arrest of Telegram CEO Pavel Durovwas part of a ongoing judicial investigation and not from a political maneuver.
The statement is the first official confirmation of the arrest of Russian billionairealmost two days after Durov was detained when his private plane landed at an airport outside Paris on Saturday.
Since then, Moscow has accused France of having double standards regarding freedom of expression. The Kremlin has called for Durov’s rights to be respected, further aggravating the already tense relations between both countries. Numerous questions have been raised about the reasons and circumstances of his detention.
On Saturday night, French authorities arrested Durov for alleged crimes of fraud, drug trafficking, organized crime and promotion of terrorism on the Telegram messaging platform, according to French media reports.
What will happen to the CEO of Telegram after his arrest?
Durov could remain detained up to a maximum of 96 hours to be interrogated. Once the detention phase is over, the judge can decide whether to release you or press charges.
The Russian embassy in Paris declared that he had demanded Durov’s access to diplomatic territory, but that “the French side refuses to cooperate” since Durov He is also a French citizen.
Macron justifies the arrest
Macron said that, although France is “deeply committed to freedom of expression and communication” and that these freedoms “are defended within a legal framework, both on social networks and in real life.”
“Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has nothing to hide and travels frequently throughout Europe,” the platform said in a statement. “It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner is responsible for abuse on it.”
Durov himself left Russia in 2014 after refusing to comply with demands to close opposition networks on the social media platform VKontakte, which he also founded and eventually sold.
