DUBAI — The United Arab Emirates’ International Ministry has urged France to urgently present consular providers to its citizen Pavel Durov, CEO of tech platform Telegram, who’s presently in custody in Paris.
In an announcement, the ministry stated it had “submitted a request to the Authorities of the French Republic to supply him with all the mandatory consular providers in an pressing method.”
Durov was arrested by French authorities late on Saturday night on cybercriminality costs. The billionaire entrepreneur, who has been residing within the United Arab Emirates since 2017, was granted citizenship of the Gulf state in 2021. He was born in Russia and holds Russian citizenship, and can be a citizen of France and Saint Kitts and Nevis.
The International Affairs Ministry stated it remained involved and was “prioritizing the welfare of UAE residents, safeguarding their pursuits.”
“Offering all facets of assist” to its arrested citizen is a key precedence for the UAE, the assertion learn. The ministry was not out there for touch upon whether or not it was capable of attain Durov.
“Durov is a UAE citizen as a lot as he’s a Russian citizen, and it’ll do every thing legally potential to assist him and can use its pleasant relation with France to safe his launch,” Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a UAE-based retired professor of political science, informed Al-Monitor.
The arrest
Durov was arrested in Paris after he traveled from Azerbaijan, the place he’s alleged to have met Russian President Vladimir Putin, which the Kremlin denied.
The costs leveled towards Durov embody little one pornography, drug trafficking and fraudulent transactions on the platform.
Telegram has been accused of permitting illicit exercise such because the sale of arms by militants. The platform additionally beforehand allowed the Islamic State to disseminate messages. Telegram’s distinctive options equivalent to teams that may assist as much as 200,000 customers have come below scrutiny for enabling criminality.
Telegram has denied the costs in an announcement, saying it was “absurd to say {that a} platform or its proprietor is liable for the abuse of that platform.”
Durov’s arrest is essentially the most high-profile arrest of a tech CEO in recent times and elicited condemnation from Elon Musk, CEO of X, a social media platform that has additionally come below comparable scrutiny.
