Pavel Durov, billionaire co-founder of messaging app Telegram, was arrested at Le Bourget airport, a suburb of Paris, after getting off his private jet on the evening of August 24.

Durov was arrested on a French court order on charges related to the Telegram messaging app, TF1 TV reported, citing an unnamed source. The 39-year-old is believed to have flown from Azerbaijan and is due to appear in court on August 25.

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The CEO of encrypted messaging app Telegram has been arrested and will stand trial in France. Photo: The Guardian

Russian news agency TASS said the Russian embassy in France has "intervened" to grasp the specific situation.

Pavel Durov is a Russian businessman, but has French and UAE (United Arab Emirates) citizenship, currently living in Dubai, where Telegram is also headquartered.

According to Forbes, Durov, who has a fortune worth $15.5 billion, left Russia in 2014 after refusing to close opposition channels on the social media platform VK.

Durov and his brother Nikolai founded the end-to-end encrypted messaging app Telegram in 2013, which now has around 900 million active users. The platform also allows users to create “channels” for quick discussions and information exchange.

Telegram is ranked as one of the major social media platforms today, after Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok and Wechat.

(According to The Guardian, BBC)

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