Telegram founder Durov released from custody, transferred to French court, AFP reports.

Support independent journalism in Ukraine. Join us in this fight.

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has been released from French custody after being held for four days and transferred to court on Aug.

28, news agency AFP reported, citing its undisclosed source. Durov was arrested at Le Bourget airport on the outskirts of Paris on Aug.

24 after landing in his private jet. Born in St.

Petersburg, Durov obtained French citizenship in 2021 but is believed to live in Dubai. He faces 12 charges from the French authorities, including crimes related to child pornography, drug trafficking, money laundering, and withholding crucial information from investigators. On Aug.

28, Politico reported that France issued arrest warrants for Pavel Durov and his brother Nikolai Durov, founders of the Telegram messaging service, already in March. The document obtained by Politico showed that the French investigation into Telegram is more extensive and was launched several months earlier than previously thought. AFP reported earlier that the investigation was opened in July.

Pavel Durov, who has a net worth estimated at £15.5 billion, left Russia in 2014 after refusing to comply with government demands to shut down opposition communities on the Russian social media platform VK, which he subsequently sold. Durov has claimed he is a pariah and has been effectively exiled from Russia, but on Aug.

27, it was reported he had visited Russia over 60 times since leaving the country, according to Kremlingram, a Ukrainian group that campaigns against the use of Telegram in Ukraine. Telegram remains one of the most popular social media platforms among Ukrainians.

A September 2023 poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology indicated that 44% of Ukrainians use Telegram to receive information and news.

Telegram is also widely used by Ukrainian officials and various government institutions against the advice of Ukraine's TV and radio-broadcasting body.

Macron asked Pavel Durov to move Telegram HQ to Paris in 2018, WSJ reports

According to the outlet, the meeting occurred a year after French intelligence services, in a joint operation with the UAE, hacked Durov's phone over concerns his app was being used by Islamic State to organize terror attacks.