Judge grants indicted Telegram CEO Pavel Durov permission to leave France temporarily

The French judicial authorities have allowed Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov to temporarily leave France, where he is currently under investigation for failing to prevent criminal activity on the popular messaging app, a source told AFP on Saturday.

Durov, who has Russian, French, and United Arab Emirates passports, flew to Dubai on Saturday morning, AFP reported, citing a source familiar with the case who also said that the investigating judge had authorised Durov to leave France for “several weeks” though he remains under charge.

Durov, the co-founder of the popular Telegram messenger service, was detained at Le Bourget Airport in Paris in August 2024 and later charged with allowing illicit financial transactions, failing to provide information to the authorities concerning people being sought by the law, complicity in the distribution of child pornography, drug trafficking, organised crime and conspiracy to commit crimes, money laundering, and offering encryption services without the required legal permits.

After being held for several days, Durov was released on €5 million bail, but was banned from leaving France and ordered to report to the police twice a week.

In the months following, while Durov was under investigation, Telegram began to take more steps to crack down on illegal activity, and began responding more quickly to requests from the authorities to remove certain content, according to radio station France Info.

Durov, who founded the popular Telegram messaging app with his brother Nikolay in 2013, is estimated to be worth €13.9 billion, while Telegram itself has become a hugely popular messenger and social media platform with a reported 960 million users worldwide.