Key Takeaways
- Pavel Durov has been allowed to leave France for Dubai under modified judicial terms.
- Durov cooperated with authorities, providing information on over 10,000 users.
Pavel Durov, the founder of messaging platform Telegram, has been granted permission to leave France for Dubai for several weeks, following modifications to his judicial supervision terms, according to Le Parisien. He departed from Le Bourget Airport near Paris this morning with authorities’ approval.
Durov, a Franco-Russian entrepreneur, was arrested at Le Bourget Airport in August and charged with complicity in criminal activities related to his encrypted messaging platform. The charges stem from allegations that he failed to act against criminal uses of Telegram.
During his first substantive interrogation on December 6, Durov stated, “I did not create” Telegram in 2013 with his brother “for criminals,” while acknowledging their presence as “a minimal fraction” that “has also increased.”
The 40-year-old billionaire defended his cooperation with French authorities, claiming that “French authorities,” including “the president’s office, the French consul in Dubai,” and “an agent of the DGSI” knew his “personal Telegram account” and “place” of residence.
In recent operations, Telegram reported responding to four legal requests in France during the first quarter of 2024, providing “identifying information concerning more than 10,000 users,” according to Durov. The investigating judge noted this figure’s relative scale against Telegram’s claimed 950 million users.
When initially indicted, Durov maintained he had always been “available and ready to respond to all requests” from France. He told investigating judges he had “become aware in police custody of the seriousness of the facts” attributed to his platform and promised to “improve” its moderation.