Pave Durov being questioned in connection to suspected multiple cybercrimes — statement

PARIS, August 26. /TASS/. The French law enforcement agencies question Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov under the investigation against an undisclosed person over suspicions of multiple cybercrimes, the Paris prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
“This judicial investigation was opened against person unnamed,” the statement says. “It is within this procedural framework in which Pavel Durov was questioned by the investigators.”
The list of criminal offences that the “unnamed person” is suspected of, includes: “complicity in web-mastering an online platform in order to enable an illegal transaction in organized group,” complicity in possession of child pornography, complicity in ” distributing, offering or making available” such pornographic materials, complicity in ” acquiring, transporting, possessing, offering or selling narcotic substances” and complicity in “offering, selling or making available, without legitimate reason, equipment, tools, programs or data designed for or adapted to get access to and to damage the operation of an automated data processing system”, as well as complicity in organized fraud.
Other crimes listed include ” Refusal to communicate, at the request of competent authorities, information or documents necessary for carrying out and operating interceptions allowed by law,” “criminal association with a view to committing a crime or an offense punishable by 5 or more years of imprisonment,” “laundering of the proceeds derived from organized group’s offences and crimes,” “providing cryptology services aiming to ensure confidentiality without certified declaration,” “providing a cryptology tool not solely ensuring authentication or integrity monitoring without prior declaration,” “Importing a cryptology tool ensuring authentication or integrity monitoring without prior declaration.”
The statement only mentions that Durov was question, but it does not say that he was charged with any of the abovementioned offences.
Pavel Durov was detained in the Le Bourget airport in Paris on August 24; on the next day, his custody period was prolonged to 96 hours. French President Emmanuel Macron stated that his decision was not political and called to wait for the judges’ ruling. According to Macron, “France remains committed to the freedom of speech, innovation and business.”
The Russian Embassy in France told TASS that it intends to ensure that Durov’s rights are protected and to achieve consular access to him, but “France has been avoiding cooperation on this issue so far.” Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova added that Durov’s French citizenship poses a problem, because, for French authorities, he is a French citizen first and foremost.