Telegram -CEO Pavel Durov back in Dubai months after Parisian arrest

Pavel Durov, founder of Telegram, said on Monday that after his breathtaking arrest near a Paris Airport, he returned to Dubai last year, which was bound by a French investigation of criminal activities in his app.

Durov, who left Russia years ago, after he had been involved in freedom of speech with the Kremlin, was arrested and forbidden to leave France last August.

He was quickly released against a deposit of 5.6 million US dollars and had to report a police station twice a week.

In a contribution to the telegram on Monday, its encrypted messaging app, said the Tech billionaire that he was arrested in France, “based on an investigation in connection with the activity of criminals on telegram. The process continues, but it feels great to be at home. “

“I would like to thank the investigators to make this happen, as well as to my lawyers and my teams for their relentless efforts, to demonstrate that it was not only fulfilled in terms of moderation, cooperation and combating crime for years, but also exceeded, added.

Durov was only allowed to leave France temporarily after an investigative judge had authorized him to go “several weeks” days ago, the French news agency AFP said.

Last summer, the French authorities stated that the 40-year-old Tech-Tycoon, including the sexual abuse of children and drug trafficking, were present.

The investigators interviewed Durov for four days after he had arrested him at Le Bourget Airport in August, according to the Associated Press.

In September, Durov defended himself against the investigation and argued that he should not be held responsible for crimes in his app.

“The use of laws from the time before the smartphone to burden a CEO on the platform for crimes on the platform that he manages is a misguided approach,” he wrote in a position to the telegram at this time.

“Construction technology is as hard enough as it is. No innovator will ever build new tools if you know that you can personally be held responsible for the possible abuse of these tools, ”he continued.

Durov's telegram has become an indispensable communication instrument during the Russia Ukraine War.

The Messaging app was used by government officials to send Air -Raid warnings, first -hand citizens and a last message between Russia and Ukraine to document war frights.

Pro Democracy groups around the world have also used telegrams to organize demonstrations.

The app is also under fire because they were used by extremist groups such as the Islamic State, White Nationalists and the theorists of the Covid-19 and Qanon conspiracy.

Durov was also the goal of the Russian state of Blacklisting, after refusing to close activist groups to Vontakte – another popular app that he founded as a Russian version of Facebook – despite the pressure of the Kremlin.

The groups – including a Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died – organized protests against the 2011 parliamentary elections, which demanded a victory for Putin's United Russia party.

The ban, which a Russian state spokesman described as a “mistake”, was lifted hours later.

A month before the Black List's incident, Durov was reportedly involved in a traffic accident in which a police officer was slightly injured. The Tech CEO refused to say as a witness and instead fled from the country, sources that knew him.

Around the same time, a private equity company connected with the Kremlin bought a share of 48% to VK and pressed the founding partners who supported Durov, according to Moscow Times.

Durov received citizenship in Saint Kitts and Nevis and lived in exile, self -imposed. He moved in 2017 and the Telegram headquarters to Dubai and was later granted French citizenship in 2021.

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