Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of the messaging app Telegram, was arrested on Saturday as he disembarked his private jet at Le Bourget airport in Paris.
The French channel TF1 reported that the French judicial police had issued an arrest warrant for the French-Russian dual national due to his suspected involvement in drug trafficking, child sexual abuse, and fraud.
Durov, 39, was said to have flown in from Azerbaijan. The warrant was only valid if he was on French soil. To avoid arrest, TF1 reported that Durov traveled through the UAE, former Soviet countries, and South America, avoiding countries where Telegram is under surveillance.
“He made a big mistake this evening,” a source close to the investigation told TF1. “We don’t know why… Was this flight just a stopover? In any case, he’s in custody.”
TF1 said that investigators from France’s anti-fraud directorate placed Durov in custody, and the CEO will appear before a judge on Saturday night before a possible indictment on Sunday. The alleged offenses include terrorism, narcotic supply, fraud, money laundering, receiving stolen goods, and others.
TF1 claimed the businessman could face up to 20 years in prison. “Pavel Durov will end up in pretrial detention, that’s for sure,” the source told TF1/LCI. “On [Telegram], he allowed an incalculable number of offenses and crimes to be committed, which he did nothing to moderate.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry said that the Russian Embassy in France has taken steps to clarify the situation surrounding Durov. Vladislav Davankov, Deputy Chair in the State Duma of Russia, spoke to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov requesting Durov’s release.
Russia’s representative to international organizations in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, tweeted “Some naive persons still don’t understand that if they play more or less visible role in international information space it is not safe for them to visit countries which move towards much more totalitarian societies.”
Tucker Carlson, the American commentator, tweeted that Durov was arrested for trying “to exercise free speech.” “Pavel Durov sits in a French jail tonight, a living warning to any platform owner who refuses to censor the truth at the behest of governments and intel agencies. Darkness is descending fast on the formerly free world.”