©AP Photo/Roman Kulik
He was accompanied by a bodyguard and a personal assistant who always travel with him, added the source, asking not to be named.
French investigators released a bodyguard and an assistant of Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov detained in France, the AFP news agency said.
No other details are given.
Durov was arrested at the Le Bourget Airport on August 24. The period of his detention was extended for 96 hours the next day. The Paris Office of Prosecutor charges him in particular with "complicity in illegal drug trafficking, crimes against children, and fraud.".
President Emmanuel Macron on Monday denied any political link to the arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov as the tech tycoon spent a second day in French custody following his surprise arrest at a Paris airport.
Numerous questions have been raised about the timing and circumstances of Durov's detention, which a source close to the case said had been extended until Wednesday.
The 39-year-old billionaire is accused of failing to curb the spread of illegal content on Telegram, which has over 900 million users. The company has rejected the accusations.
Born in Soviet times into a family of academics in Leningrad, now known as Saint Petersburg, Durov spent his childhood in Italy before building up Russia's then biggest social network VKontakte (VK) in his early 20s.
He set up Telegram after leaving Russia a decade ago, and Forbes magazine estimates his current fortune at $15.5 billion.
In a post on X to address what he called "false information" concerning the case, Macron said Durov's arrest "took place as part of an ongoing judicial investigation".
"It is in no way a political decision. It is up to the judges to rule on the matter," he wrote in a highly unusual comment on a legal case.
Durov holds a French passport in addition to his Russian nationality.
One key question is why Durov flew into France when he would have likely been aware he was wanted in the country. “Perhaps he had a feeling of impunity,” said one source close to the case, asking not to be named.
Russian President Vladimir Putin was in Baku on a state visit to Azerbaijan on August 18 and 19, though Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied that the two had met.
Durov is accused of failing to take action to curb the criminal use of his platform.
France’s OFMIN, an office tasked with preventing violence against minors, issued an arrest warrant for Durov in a preliminary investigation into alleged offences including fraud, drug trafficking, cyberbullying, organised crime and promotion of terrorism, another source said.
Telegram said in response that “Durov has nothing to hide and travels frequently in Europe”.
“Telegram abides by EU laws, including the Digital Services Act - its moderation is within industry standards,” it added.
“It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform.
Kremlin spokesman Peskov said Moscow had received no information from France on why Durov was detained, saying “we do not know concretely what Durov is accused of”.
Elon Musk, who leads the Tesla car group and X, formerly Twitter, posted the hashtag #FreePavel on his platform and commented in French, “Liberte Liberte! Liberte?” (Freedom Freedom! Freedom?).
UAE demands France provide Durov with consular help
Abu Dhabi has asked the French government to grant Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov access to the UAE’s consular services following his arrest in Paris, according to a statement from the Middle Eastern state’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday.
Durov was arrested in France last week as part of a broader investigation into the illegal use of his end-to-end encrypted social media app, authorities have said. The Russian entrepreneur holds citizenship in Russia, the UAE, France, and Saint Kitts and Nevis.
“The UAE is closely monitoring the case of its citizen Pavel Durov, founder of Telegram, who was arrested by French authorities at Paris–Le Bourget Airport,” the UAE’s Foreign Ministry stated on Tuesday. It added that it “has submitted a request to the Government of the French Republic to provide him with all necessary consular services urgently.”
The Ministry also emphasized that ensuring the welfare of UAE citizens is a key priority for the country.
Moscow has also sent an official letter to Paris demanding consular access for Telegram’s founder, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said earlier.
In a statement on Sunday, Telegram asserted that the app “abides by EU laws, including the Digital Services Act,” and noted that its “moderation practices are aligned with industry standards and continually improving.” The company emphasized that “it is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner is responsible for the misuse of that platform.”
Telegram is a popular messaging app with nearly a billion users globally. It offers end-to-end encryption, enhancing privacy for both sender and recipient, and generally refuses to provide user data or chat records to law enforcement. Durov has previously stated that this commitment to user privacy has made him a target for national intelligence agencies, claiming in an April interview with US journalist Tucker Carlson that the FBI attempted to recruit one of his software engineers to create a backdoor in the app, which would allow them to spy on Telegram users.
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