Telegram Messenger Boss Pavel Durov Indicted and Placed Under Judicial Supervision with Ban on Leaving French Territory

The 39-year-old Franco-Russian is notably accused by the French justice system of not taking action against the dissemination of criminal or offending content on his messaging platform.

He spent nearly four days in police custody. Pavel Durov, the boss of Telegram, has been indicted and placed under judicial supervision, the Paris prosecutor’s office announced in a statement on Wednesday, August 28. Earlier in the day, he had been brought before an investigating judge “for the purpose of a first appearance examination” and his “potential indictment”franceinfo learned from a judicial source.

Pavel Durov is being indicted for “ccomplicity in the administration of an online platform to enable an illicit transaction, in organized gang”, “laundering of crimes or offences by an organized gang”, or even “refusal to communicate, at the request of the authorized authorities, the information or documents necessary for the carrying out and exploitation of interceptions authorized by law”. Placed under judicial supervision, he has the obligation to “to pay a deposit of 5 million euros, the obligation to report to the police station twice a week, and a ban on leaving French territory”, specifies the Paris public prosecutor’s office.

The 39-year-old Franco-Russian was arrested Saturday evening in the Paris-Le Bourget airport (Seine-Saint-Denis) under a French search warrant. The French justice system accuses him of not taking action against the dissemination of criminal or offending content on his messaging service, which has more than 900 million users. This is something the company denies. “It is totally absurd to think that the head of a social network” such as Pavel Durov “may be involved in criminal acts” which would be committed via his email, declared his lawyer, David-Olivier Kaminski, in front of some media at the Paris court. “Telegram complies in all respects with European rules concerning digital technology, it is a moderator in the same standards as other social networks”, he defended.

This arrest took place as part of a judicial investigation opened against unknown persons on July 8 and led by specialized investigating judges from Paris, after a preliminary investigation by the cybercrime section of the Paris prosecutor’s office. Pavel Dourov was questioned for 12 offenses relating to organized crime, the Paris prosecutor’s office said on Monday. The charges include, among other things, the administration of an online platform to enable an illicit transaction by an organized gang, refusal to communicate the information necessary for interceptions authorized by law, complicity in offenses and crimes organized on the platform (drug trafficking, child pornography, fraud and money laundering by an organized gang) and the provision of cryptology services aimed at ensuring confidentiality functions without a proper declaration.

The arrest of Dubai-based Pavel Durov has sparked strong reactions around the world. He has received support from Russian-based American whistleblower Edward Snowden and Elon Musk, the American boss of X. In Moscow, Duma Deputy Speaker Vladislav Davankov and members of his liberal New People party placed paper planes in the shape of the Telegram logo in front of the French embassy on Sunday.

In response, Emmanuel Macron assured on Monday that the arrest of Pavel Durov was not “not a political decision in any way” but was relevant “of a judicial inquiry”adding that France was “attached to freedom of expression and communication”The social network Telegram, launched in 2013, has pledged never to reveal information about its users and has positioned itself against the grain of American platforms, criticized for their commercial exploitation of personal data.