The founder of Telegram, Pavel Durov, indicted in Paris for complicity of criminal activities, left France on Saturday March 15 with the authorization of justice, learned the agency France-Presse (AFP) of three sources close to the file.
The investigating judge accepted his request for a change in judicial control several days ago and authorized him to leave France for “Several weeks”according to one of these sources. According to another AFP contact, Mr. Durov left Le Bourget airport near Paris, at the end of the morning for Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, where his business is based.
His lawyers, Kaminski and Darrois firms, were not immediately available. Contacted, a spokesperson from Telegram based in Washington refused to comment on this information.
The year 2024 was marked by the placement in police custody, then the indictment at the end of August of the boss of the messaging platform by two French judges for a litany of offenses relating to organized crime, justice accusing him of not acting against the dissemination of criminal content on messaging.
Pedocrime, narcotics, weapons sales
Mr. Durov had been released with heavy judicial control, providing in particular the obligation to put a deposit of 5 million euros and to point to the police station twice a week, and the ban on leaving French territory. The case had caused a stir, Moscow warning against “Any political persecution”.
In December 2024, the 40 -year -old billionaire, who owned several nationalities (French, Russian and Emirati, in particular), had recognized before the investigating judges “Getting aware in police custody of the gravity of the facts” accused of its platform and promised” improve “ its moderation.
The judges had then detailed about fifteen groups specializing in pedocrime, narcotics, scams, sales of arms, the use of sicaries, sometimes with a storefront on the platform. Mr. Durov had said he did not create Telegram in 2013 with his brother “For criminals”however, conceding that their presence, “A minimal fraction”,, “Has also increased”.