Telegram founder Pavel Durov considers the charges brought against him by French law enforcement agencies to be absurd, writes RBC. He said in an interview with American journalist Tucker Carlson that he still does not understand what he is being accused of in France.
Image source: Telegram
«At first they said that we allegedly did not respond to legal requests, but this is not true. And even if it were so, the interpretation of “complicity” is extremely far-fetched. Lawyers say that there are almost no precedents,” Durov said. The Telegram founder called the accusations brought against him by the French authorities that “among the billion Telegram users there were those who were engaged in illegal activities,” and he did not prevent this, absurd.
«”It’s like arresting Donald Trump because one of the 350 million Americans committed a crime. Or putting Macron in jail for a robbery in Toulouse. It’s absurd,” Durov says.
Pavel Durov was arrested at Le Bourget Airport in Paris in August 2024 and released on €5 million bail with a ban on leaving France. As Carlson noted, he is currently effectively under house arrest due to an ongoing investigation into allegations of insufficient content moderation on the messenger and failure to cooperate with authorities. Due to travel restrictions, Durov is forced to live in France.
«I was released to Dubai, I recently returned and will go there again this week. But it is a very limited, controlled process,” Durov said. Due to the court’s ban, he was unable to travel to the United States in May for “negotiations with investment funds” or to the “Freedom Forum” in Oslo.