Pavel Durov, the Russian-French founder of the Telegram messaging app, has been granted permission to leave France after changes to his judicial supervision conditions.
According to Le Parisien, citing AFP, Durov departed from Le Bourget Airport near Paris this morning (Saturday) with approval from French authorities to travel to Dubai. He had been arrested at the same airport in August last year and placed under formal investigation. Although he was released on a €5 million bail, he had been prohibited from leaving France until now.
The charges against Durov, brought by French officials, include facilitating the distribution of illegal content related to child exploitation, drug trafficking, organized fraud, and other unlawful activities allegedly linked to Telegram. Additionally, Telegram has been accused of failing to cooperate with law enforcement agencies by not providing requested user information.
In December, during his first court appearance in Paris, Durov stated that his arrest had made him aware of significant issues on the platform. He pledged to enhance Telegram’s monitoring policies. Initially, he criticized France for failing to provide proper warnings but later assured authorities of his full cooperation, adding that his contact information was available to the French President’s office and intelligence services.
Durov emphasized that Telegram, founded in 2013 by him and his brother, was not created for criminal activities but acknowledged that such users had increasingly exploited the platform. He claimed that Telegram removes 15 to 20 million accounts and one to two million channels and groups each month.
The Telegram founder also revealed that in the first half of 2024, the platform provided identity information for over 10,000 users to authorities. However, an investigator described this figure as insignificant compared to Telegram’s 950 million users.
