Telegram boss's lawyer dismisses probe against Durov as absurd

[August 29, 2024]  PARIS (Reuters) -A lawyer for Telegram boss Pavel Durov, who is being investigated in France, said it was "totally absurd" to suggest the head of a social network was responsible for any criminal acts committed on the platform, French media said.

A French judge put Durov under formal investigation on Wednesday, saying he was suspected of complicity in running an online platform that allows illicit transactions, images of child sex abuse and drug trafficking. He is also being investigated for alleged money laundering and the refusal to cooperate with judicial authorities.

Durov, who spent four days in police custody following his arrest on Saturday at an airport near Paris, was granted bail on condition he pays 5 million euros ($5.6 million) and does not leave French territory.

Durov will also need to report twice a week to police of the town where he'll be staying. He will have to be home at certain specific hours, a judicial source said, without saying where he would live or how many hours a day he would need to be there.

His arrest has fuelled debate on where freedom of speech ends and enforcement of the law begins, and to what extent tech companies should be held responsible for social media content. Telegram is used by close to a billion people.

"It's totally absurd to think that the head of a social network could be involved in criminal acts that do not concern him, either directly or indirectly," lawyer David-Olivier Kaminski, who is representing Durov in France, said in comments to reporters carried by several local media outlets.

"Telegram fully abides with European rules on digital," he was quoted as saying.

Being placed under formal investigation in France does not imply guilt or necessarily lead to trial, but indicates judges consider there is enough evidence to proceed with the probe. Investigations can last years before being sent to trial or shelved.

A participant of a one-person picket demonstrates a placard to bring attention to the arrest of Pavel Durov, founder and CEO of the Telegram messaging app, near the French embassy in Moscow, Russia August 25, 2024. A slogan on the placard reads: "Freedom for Pavel Durov". REUTERS/Yulia Morozova/File Photo

Kaminski did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin said the arrest of the Russian-born tech boss, which has further strained relations between France and Russia, should not turn into "political persecution."

Durov has French, UAE and Russian citizenship.

The United Arab Emirates is in touch with French authorities and representatives of Emirati citizen Pavel Durov, a government official said.

French President Emmanuel Macron, who is known to be an avid user of Telegram, said earlier this week that Durov's arrest was "in no way a political decision" and that the probe had been decided by judicial authorities, not by the government.

Macron had lunch with Durov in 2018 as part of a series of meetings with tech entrepreneurs, a source close to the president said, and Durov was granted French citizenship in 2021 under a rare procedure for high-profile individuals.

($1 = 0.8980 euros)

(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon and Ingrid Melander; Additional reporting by Gabriel Stargardter, Alexander Cornwell and Gleb Stolyarov; Editing by Stephen Coates, Helen Popper, William Maclean)

[© 2024 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.  Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.