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Translated by: Flutura Gashi-Mehmeti
- August 27, 2024 14:31
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A French judge has decided to extend the detention of Telegram chief executive Pavel Durov, prosecutors announced on Tuesday.
Durov was arrested Saturday at Le Bourget airport as part of a judicial investigation opened last month involving 12 alleged criminal violations, the AP reports.
The violations Durov is suspected of include complicity in the sale of child sexual abuse materials and drug trafficking, fraud, facilitating organized crime transactions and refusing to share information or documents with investigators when required by law.
A statement from the Paris prosecutor's office said the order for Durov's police detention was extended Monday evening to 48 hours. After that, the authorities must release him or charge him.
Durov is a citizen of Russia, France, the United Arab Emirates and the Caribbean island nation of St. Kitts and Nevis.
Russian government officials have expressed outrage at his ban, calling it politically motivated and proof of the West's double standard on free speech. However, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, declared on Monday that there is no political background in Durov's arrest and that the court should decide on it.
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The head of Telegram, Pavel Durov, is arrested in Paris
The Russian response has fueled anger among Kremlin critics because in 2018, Russian authorities themselves tried to block Telegram but failed, lifting the ban in 2020.
On Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the charges against Durov were "very serious" and stressed that "they require evidence that is just as serious" to dispel suspicions that his arrest was politically motivated.
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