The judicial authorities in France filed a preliminary indictment against Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram - the popular messaging platform for a series of serious offenses under the law, among them: child pornography and complicity in drug trafficking.
Durov landed last Saturday evening in France, with his private plane at La Bourge airport north of Paris, and was immediately arrested. The heavy line of charges against Durov, who was born in Russia but also holds French citizenship, includes claims that his platform is used to distribute materials of sexual exploitation of children and drug trafficking.
Another claim that appears in the indictment is that the Telegram application refused to share information or documents with the investigators as required by law. Paris's prosecutor stated that there was "an almost complete lack of response from Telegram to our legal demands".
The prosecutor said that the Telegram application "emerged" repeatedly in investigations surrounding child pornography, drug trafficking and incitement to hatred based on racism online since it was launched in 2013.
The judges placed Durov under the supervision of the authorities, forbade him to leave France and required him to post bail in the amount of 5 million euros. Also, the founder of Telegram will have to appear at a police station twice a week. The investigation may last months or even years.
The judges' decision yesterday means that the French court thought there was enough evidence against Durov to deepen their investigation into whether Durov violated French laws that require online platforms to limit harmful and illegal content and cooperate with authorities. If the Telegram founder is convicted of complicity in illegal online crimes, Durov faces a hefty sentence of up to 10 years in prison and a whopping fine of 500,000 euros (about $550,000).
* Channel 14 contributed to this article.
