The founder of Telegram, Pavel Durov, was questioned this Friday for the first time by a Parisian judge. It is the target of an investigation into the possible complicity of the messaging platform with criminal actions. Arriving at the Paris judicial court around 10 a.m. with his lawyers David-Olivier Kaminski and Christophe Ingrain, Pavel Durov indicated that he “trusted French justice”, without further comment.
He was indicted at the end of August by two investigating judges for a litany of offenses relating to organized crime, after four days in police custody. Justice generally criticizes him for not acting against the dissemination of criminal content on messaging. Pavel Durov was released under heavy judicial supervision, including the obligation to provide a bond of 5 million euros and to report to the police station twice a week, and a ban on leaving French territory.
Telegram responds more to justice since the start of the case
David-Olivier Kaminski considered it “absurd” to think that his client was “involved” in crimes committed via Telegram. A source close to the investigation indicated that this legal procedure had had a positive effect, in France and elsewhere, with Telegram beginning to respond more than before to legal requisitions.
In mid-September, the 40-year-old billionaire, who has several nationalities (French, Russian and Emirati in particular), broke his silence for the first time since his arrest in a long message on Telegram, in which he said he found it “surprising” to be held responsible for content published by other people and considered the French approach “misguided”. However, he recognized that the sharp increase in the number of Telegram users – which he estimated at 950 million worldwide – had generated a situation which had “made it easier for criminals to abuse our platform”.
France
