The French justice refuses to the founder of Telegram, Pavel Durov, a travel request in the USA

The French justice refused to the founder of Telegram, Pavel Durov, who is investigated for complicity in criminal activities, the request to travel to Oslo to attend a conference, the Prosecutor in Paris, quoted by AFP, indicated on Saturday.

Human Rights Foundation (HRF), an organizer of Oslo Freedom Forum, announced on Saturday that ‘French justice rejected Durov’s request to travel to Norway to talk to Oslo Freedom Forum on Tuesday.

Durov had been invited to speak to this annual meeting ‘about freedom of expression, supervision and digital rights’.

« It is regrettable that French justice prevents Durov from participating in an event in which his voice would be so useful, » said the founder and president of HRF, Thor Halvorssen, in the statement.

‘Technologies like Telegram are basic tools for those who oppose tyranny. This is more than a disappointment for our community: it is a regress for freedom, ‘Halvorssen added.

The statement added that Durov will talk to the event through Videoconference in France.

His lawyers did not respond to AFP requests for comments.

In the middle of May, the French justice also rejected Durov a request to travel to the United States to meet investors. However, he was allowed to travel to Dubai between the middle of March and the beginning of April.

On May 17, the 40 -year -old Russian businessman, who became a French citizen in 2021, posted various messages on the X platform, discussing a ‘Western Europe’ government who, according to him, wanted to silence conservative voices’ in Romania, on the occasion of the presidential elections held on Sunday. And he added, ‘Guess which?’, Posting an emoticon in the form of a (French) lant as a hint.

On the same social network X, the French Foreign Ministry denounced ‘totally unfounded charges’.

But a few hours later, Pavel Durov went on. « In the spring, at Salon des Batailles at the Hotel de Crillon (Paris), Nicolas Lerner, the head of French secret services, asked me to block conservative voices in Romania before elections, » he wrote.

I refused. I did not block protesters in Russia, Belarus or Iran. We will not start doing it in Europe, « he said.

The General Directorate of External Security (DGSE), the French external intelligence services, ‘rejected Durov’s accusations on Monday, indicating at the same time that he has been effectively obliged, several times in recent years, to come into direct contact with Pavel Durov to firmly remind his company (…) regarding the prevention of the threat and the threat.