France charges Telegram CEO Pavel Durov, releases him on €5M bail

PARIS — French authorities on Wednesday indicted Telegram CEO Pavel Durov with six charges related to illicit activity on the app.

Durov was also released from custody on a €5 million bail. He is forbidden from leaving France and must check in at a police station twice a week.

The charges include complicity in managing an online platform “in order to enable an illegal transaction in organized group,” and refusal to cooperate with law enforcement authorities, the Paris prosecutor’s office said in a press release.

Governments in Paris, Moscow and Abu Dhabi have become tangled up in a diplomatic furor by the bombshell arrest of one of the world’s most powerful tech entrepreneurs, which also ignited a fierce debate about online free speech and technology regulation.

Durov was also charged with “complicity in the offenses of making available without legitimate reason a program or data designed for… organized gang distribution of images of minors presenting child pornography, drug trafficking.” A judge will now investigate further the charges, that can still be dropped at a later stage.

Telegram “appears in multiple cases involving various offenses (child sexual abuse offenses, trafficking, online hate),” the prosecutor’s office wrote, pointing to “Telegram’s almost total failure to respond to judicial requests.”

“When consulted, other French investigation departments and public prosecutors’ offices, as well as various Eurojust partners, notably Belgian, shared the same observation,” it added. “This led… to opening an investigation into the possible criminal responsibility of the managers of this messaging service.”

A preliminary investigation was opened in February, the statement added. French authorities issued warrants for both Durov and his brother Nikolai in March, according to a French administrative document seen exclusively by POLITICO.

“The only statement I’d wish to make is that Telegram is in conformity with every aspect of European norms on digital matters. It is absurd to think that the head of a social network is being charged,” Durov’s lawyer David-Olivier Kaminski said after the announcement. 

The Russian-born tech tycoon was detained at Paris’ Le Bourget airport on Saturday night, as part of a sprawling inquiry into criminal activity on the messaging platform.

Telegram, a messaging app based in Dubai, has long been scrutinized over accusations of rampant fraud, drug trafficking, organized crime, terrorism promotion and cyber-bullying on the platform.

After Durov’s arrest, Telegram pushed back strongly against any suggestion of wrongdoing in an online statement Sunday, saying it abides by all EU laws and that Durov “has nothing to hide.”

This story has been updated to clarify that the indictment was made on Wednesday.