Telegram Founder Pavel Durov Formally Charged in France, Banned from Leaving the Country During Trial

Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of Telegram, has been formally charged by French prosecutors after being arrested by French police last week. Durov has since been released from police custody but is not allowed to leave France, as ordered by the Paris prosecutor's office.

Durov has been granted limited freedom during the trial period—he is no longer confined to detention but is required to post a bail of 500 euros and report to the French police twice a week while the case is being heard.

The Paris prosecutor, Laure Beccuau, released documents accusing Durov of several criminal activities, closely mirroring allegations disclosed by anonymous sources earlier this week.

These criminal charges include:

• Conspiring to manage an online platform to facilitate illegal transactions for organized crime groups.
• Refusing to provide information and documents required for lawful interception and criminal investigations as requested by the authorities.
• Conspiring to distribute and possess child pornography.
• Conspiring to enable organized groups to distribute, sell, and provide child pornographic images.
• Conspiring in the purchase, transportation, possession, provision, or sale of drugs.
• Conspiring to provide, sell tools or programs for unauthorized damage to data processing systems (i.e., hacking tools) without legal basis.
• Conspiring to participate in organized group fraud.
• Conspiring in criminal activities or participating in illegal actions.
• Money laundering.
• Providing privacy encryption services without certification.
• Providing an encryption tool that does not offer authentication or integrity controls unless previously declared.
• Importing encryption tools offering authentication or integrity controls without prior declaration.

The prosecutor claims Telegram has refused to cooperate with law enforcement in criminal investigations, especially in cases involving minors, drug offenses, and online hate crimes, leading French authorities to investigate the criminal liabilities of the instant messaging tool's executives in these criminal activities.

Notably, the prosecutor emphasized Durov's involvement in drug trafficking and the dissemination of child pornography, indicating the criminal gangs' use of the Telegram platform for transactions, and Durov and Telegram's failure to cooperate with law enforcement investigations, thus being seen as accomplices to the criminal gangs.

According to French law, cryptography providers must declare to the French National Agency for the Security of Information Systems (ANSSI), and France may require the provider to disclose the technical characteristics and source code of the cryptographic means involved. Only approved services can offer cryptography.

Telegram, offering end-to-end encryption services without prior declaration to ANSSI and not providing the required technical characteristics and source code (essentially, vulnerabilities or backdoors in the encryption strategy), is thus seen as illegal.

Moreover, since Pavel Durov has obtained French citizenship, the French judiciary considers it completely reasonable to arrest and try Durov, even though Telegram is not a French company and does not have a branch in Europe.