The lawyer of Telegram chief Pavel Durov, who has been arrested in France, has said his detention is “absolutely ridiculous” and an attack on freedom of speech.
Mr Durov was arrested by French police after his private jet had landed at Le Bourget Airport in Paris on Saturday, French media reported.
According to officials, the 39-year-old billionaire was detained in relation to an investigation about a lack of moderators on Telegram – which it has previously denied.
Mr Durov is accused of failing to take steps to curb criminal uses of Telegram. The app is accused of not cooperating with law enforcement over drug trafficking, child sexual content and fraud.
His lawyer, Dmitry Agranovsky, told Russian news outlet RIA Novosti that the accusations were similar to blaming a car manufacturer for an accident, or for its cars being used for crimes.
Pavel Durov was born in Russia and lives in Dubai. He holds dual citizenship of the United Arab Emirates and France.
Telegram is particularly popular in Russia, Ukraine and former Soviet Union states.
The app was banned in Russia in 2018, after a previous refusal by him to hand over user data. The ban was reversed in 2021.
Telegram is ranked as one of the major social media platforms after Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok and Wechat.
Pavel Durov founded Telegram in 2013. He left Russia in 2014 after refusing to comply with government demands to shut down opposition communities on his VKontakte social media platform, which he sold.
On Sunday, the Russian Embassy in France wrote on Facebook that it was seeking to “clarify the reasons for the detention and to provide for the protection of Mr Durov’s rights and facilitate consular access”.
The post added that French authorities had not been cooperating with Russian officials.
Credit: bbc.com
