PARIS/MOSCOW, Aug 25 (Reuters) - Pavel Durov, the Russian-born billionaire founder and owner of the Telegram messaging app, was arrested at Le Bourget airport outside Paris shortly after landing on a private jet late on Saturday and placed in custody, three sources told Reuters.
The arrest of the 39-year-old technology billionaire prompted on Sunday a warning from Moscow to Paris that he should be accorded his rights and criticism from X owner Elon Musk who said that free speech in Europe was under attack.
There was no official confirmation from France of the arrest, but two French police sources and one Russian source who spoke on condition of anonymity said that Durov was arrested shortly after arriving at Le Bourget airport on a private jet from Azerbaijan.
One of the two French police sources said that ahead of the jet's arrival, police had spotted he was on the passenger list and moved to arrest him because he was the subject of an arrest warrant in France.
"Telegram abides by EU laws, including the Digital Services Act — its moderation is within industry standards and constantly improving," Telegram said in a statement on the arrest.
"Telegram's CEO Pavel Durov has nothing to hide and travels frequently in Europe," it said. "It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform."
Durov, who has dual French and United Arab Emirates citizenship, was arrested as part of a preliminary police investigation into allegedly allowing a wide range of crimes due to a lack of moderators on Telegram and a lack of cooperation with police, a third French police source said.
A cybersecurity gendarmerie unit and France's national anti-fraud police unit are leading the investigation, that source said, adding that the investigative judge was specialised in organised crime.
"We’re awaiting a prompt resolution of this situation. Telegram is with you all," Telegram said.
The French Interior Ministry, police and Paris prosecutor's office had no comment.
Russian lawmaker Maria Butina, who spent 15 months in U.S. prison for acting as an unregistered Russian agent, said Durov "is a political prisoner - a victim of a witch-hunt by the West." Durov's arrest led news bulletins in Russia.
Telegram, based in Dubai, was founded by Durov, who left Russia in 2014 after he refused to comply with demands to shut down opposition communities on his VK social media platform, which he has sold.
The encrypted application, with close to 1 billion users, is particularly influential in Russia, Ukraine and the republics of the former Soviet Union. It is ranked as one of the major social media platforms after Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok and WeChat.
