DUBAI — The United Arab Emirates Ministry of Foreign Affairs has asked France to urgently provide consular services to Pavel Durov, a United Arab Emirates national and CEO of technology platform Telegram, currently detained in Paris.
“We have asked the Government of the French Republic to urgently provide him with all the consular services he requires,” the ministry said in a statement.
Durov was arrested by French authorities late Saturday night on suspicion of cybercrimes. The billionaire entrepreneur, who has been living in the UAE since 2017, was granted citizenship of the Gulf state in 2021. He was born in Russia and holds Russian nationality, as well as being a citizen of France and St. Kitts and Nevis.
The Foreign Ministry said it remained concerned and “prioritizes the welfare of the UAE people and safeguards their interests.”
The statement said it was a key priority for the UAE to “provide all manner of assistance” to its arrested citizens. The ministry did not comment on whether it had been able to contact Durov.
“Durov is a Russian and UAE national. The UAE will take all legal steps possible to help him and use its friendly relations with France to secure his release,” Abdulkhalek Abdullah, a former political science professor based in the UAE, told Al-Monitor.
Arrest
Durov was arrested after traveling to Paris from Azerbaijan, where he is said to have met with Russian President Putin, a claim the Kremlin denies.
The charges against Durov include child pornography, drug trafficking and fraudulent transactions on the platform.
Telegram has been accused of allowing illegal activities such as arms sales by militant groups. The platform has previously allowed Islamic State to spread its messages. Telegram’s unique features, such as groups, which can support up to 200,000 users, have come under scrutiny for enabling illegal activity.
Telegram denied the charges in a statement, saying it was “absurd to assert that the platform or its owners are responsible for misuse of its platform.”
Durov’s arrest is the most high-profile of a tech CEO in recent years and drew condemnation from Elon Musk, CEO of social media platform X, who is also under investigation.