French court allows Telegram founder to temporarily travel to Dubai: report

The founder of the Telegram messaging app, Pavel Durov, flew from France to Dubai with permission from a French court, Barron's reports. "He left France this morning," an unnamed source familiar with the case told AFP. A second source told AFP that an investigating judge had approved Durov's request to leave France for "several weeks". Durov's legal troubles began last year Durov was abruptly arrested by French authorities at Le Bourget airport in Paris on August 24. Following his arrest, Durov faced a slew of charges on Aug. 26, including complicity in child exploitation, drug trafficking and other organized criminal activities. French authorities allege that through a lack of content censorship, Telegram, and therefore Durov, facilitated illegal activities, including the distribution of child pornography and drug trafficking. The authorities stated that Durov could face up to 10 years in prison along with a fine of 500,000 euros (550,000 la). The Telegram community condemned Durov's arrest in an open letter, calling it "a blatant attack on freedom of speech and privacy." Whistleblower Edward Snowden and tech billionaire Elon Musk also condemned Durov's arrest as an attack on free speech. Approval to amend bail conditions has been received On August 28, Durov was released from police custody and placed under judicial supervision after posting €5 million bail (6 million la) dollars. Durov's release depends on a number of conditions, one of which requires him to remain in France. However, according to Barron's report, the investigating judge granted Durov's request to amend bail conditions on March 13, allowing him to leave the country. While the exact terms of the court's ruling remain unclear, Durov's departure from Dubai — a city known for not having extradition agreements with several countries — has raised concerns about jurisdiction and privacy. Durov is not only a French citizen, but also holds citizenship in Russia and the United Arab Emirates of (UAE). A few weeks after his release, Durov wrote in a Telegram post: "Building technology is hard enough. No creator will build new tools if they know that they may be personally liable for potential misuse of those tools." Things are getting better for Russian programmers News of Durov's departure from Dubai has not yet been officially confirmed by Telegram or Durov himself. However, if confirmed, Durov would be the second Russian programmer to be released. Just last month, Alexander Vinnik, who runs the now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange BTC-e, was released by the United States and sent to Russia as part of a prisoner exchange program. The prisoner exchange program is one of several attempts to mend political and diplomatic ties between the two countries. However, it is worth noting that Telegram was banned in Russia in 2018 after the app refused to hand over the encryption key needed to read users' communications. TON Foundation welcomes news of Durov's trip The cryptocurrency market reacted positively to the news of Durov's trip to Dubai. The price of The Open Network ( TON ) has increased by 20% in the past 24 hours, according to CryptoSlate data. The TON Foundation also welcomed the news and called it an "important moment of determination" in a statement released on X. The statement noted: "As part of the decentralized TON community, we have always stood in solidarity with Pavel, supporting his unwavering dedication to protecting freedom of speech and online privacy."