French authorities on Tuesday indicted Telegram CEO Pavel Durov with six charges and released him from custody on a €5 million bail.
Durov faces six charges including “complicity in the offences of making available without legitimate reason a program or data designed for… organized gang distribution of images of minors presenting child pornography, drug trafficking”, “complicity in web-mastering an online platform in order to enable an illegal transaction in organized group” and “refusal to communicate, at the request of competent authorities, information or documents necessary for carrying out and operating interceptions allowed by law,” the Paris prosecutor’s office said in a press release dated Wednesday.
Durov is forbidden from leaving France and must check in at a police station twice a week.
Russian-born tech tycoon Durov was detained at Paris’ Le Bourget airport on Saturday night, as part of a sprawling inquiry into criminal activity on the messaging platform.
Telegram, a messaging app based in Dubai, has long been scrutinized over accusations of rampant fraud, drug trafficking, organized crime, terrorism promotion and cyber-bullying on the platform.
After Durov’s arrest, Telegram pushed back strongly against any suggestion of wrongdoing in an online statement Sunday, saying it abides by all EU laws and that Durov “has nothing to hide.”
