French authorities issued arrest warrants for Pavel Durov, the CEO of Telegram, and his brother Nikolai Durov, co-founder of the messaging app, back in March, according to a French administrative document.
The document reveals that the French secret investigation into Telegram is broader and began months earlier than previously known. The case centers around Telegram’s refusal to cooperate with the French police investigation into child sexual abuse.
Pavel Durov was arrested by French police on Saturday evening at Le Bourget airport in Paris after border officials alerted the judiciary that he was arriving on his private jet from Azerbaijan.
His arrest has sparked a diplomatic storm for the French government, as well as global outrage concerning freedom of speech and the responsibility of social media platforms for the content shared by their users.
The arrest warrants were issued after the messaging platform “failed to respond” to a previous court request to identify Telegram users, according to a document from someone involved in the case.
The document also emphasizes Telegram’s “almost non-existent cooperation” with French and European authorities in other cases.
Warrants for Pavel and his brother Nikolai, co-founders of the platform, were issued on March 25th due to charges including “complicity in the possession, distribution, offering, or making available of pornographic images of minors, in an organized group.”
French media had earlier reported that the investigation was opened in July.
The warrants were issued following a secret investigation into Telegram led by the Paris prosecutor’s office’s cybercrime unit, during which a suspect discussed luring underage girls into sending “self-produced child pornography” and then threatened to post it on social media.
The suspect also told investigators that he had raped a young child, according to the document.
Telegram did not respond to the French authorities’ request to identify the suspect, Jutarnji writes.
E.Dz.
