By Ingrid Melander and Guy Faulconbridge
PARIS/MOSCOW (Reuters) -Pavel Durov, the Russian-born billionaire creator and owner of the Telegram messaging app, was detained at Le Bourget airport exterior Paris soon after landing on a personal jet late on Saturday and positioned in custody, a authorities source stated.
The arrest of the 39-year-old innovation billionaire triggered on Sunday a caution from Moscow to Paris that he needto be accorded his rights and criticism from X owner Elon Musk who stated that complimentary speech in Europe was under attack.
There was no authorities verification from France of the arrest, which French and Russian media have likewise reported, stating that Durov was jailed soon after showingup at Le Bourget airport on a personal jet from Azerbaijan.
France’s BFM and TF1 stated that Durov, who has double French and United Arab Emirates citizenship, was detained as part of a initial cops examination into enabling possible criminality due to a absence of mediators on Telegram and a absence of cooperation with cops. Reuters’ authorities source might not verify that.
Telegram and senior Telegram supervisors did not respond to duplicated demands for remark. The French Interior Ministry, authorities and Paris districtattorney’s workplace had no remark. Durov dealswith possible indictment on Sunday, according to French media.
Telegram, based in Dubai, was established by Durov, who left Russia in 2014 after he declined to comply with needs to shut down opposition neighborhoods on his VK social media platform, which he hasactually offered.
The encrypted application, with close to one billion users, is especially prominent in Russia, Ukraine and the republics of the previous Soviet Union. It is ranked as one of the significant social media platforms after Facebook (NASDAQ:), YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok and WeChat.
TELEGRAM
Durov, who is approximated by Forbes to have a fortune of $15.5 billion, stated in April some federalgovernments had lookedfor to pressure him however the app needto stay a “neutral platform” and not a “player in geopolitics”.
Durov came up with the concept of an secured messaging app as a method to interact while he was un