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In the first official confirmation of Durov’s arrest since he was detained at an airport near Paris on Saturday night, French President Emmanuel Macron said there was no political motive for the arrest, despite mixed comments online.
He added that France remained firmly committed to freedom of expression under the law.
“Until the arrest”Until the arrest of the Telegram director on French territory, leading to an ongoing judicial investigation. This is in no way a political decision. The judges will judge,” Macron wrote on X.
Paris prosecutor Laura Beko said in a statement that Durov’s arrest was part of an investigation launched July 8 by the office’s cybercrime unit into an unnamed individual.
The investigation involves alleged involvement in various criminal activities, including operating an internet platform that enabled illegal transactions, child pornography, drug trafficking and fraud, as well as refusing to provide information to authorities, money laundering and providing crypto services to criminals, the statement said.
Durov, who is expected to be detained until Wednesday, is a French-United Arab Emirates dual citizen who was born in Russia and founded Telegram with his brother in 2013. He left Russia in 2014 after refusing to comply with government demands to exclude opposition groups from the Vkontakte platform, which it was selling.
Telegram is an encrypted app with about 1 billion users and is particularly popular in Russia, Ukraine and former Soviet republics.
Durov said in April that some Western governments had tried to pressure him, but he believed the app should remain a neutral platform and not a “geopolitical player.”
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