Lawyer sees little chance of Telegram co-founder’s extradition from France to UAE

MOSCOW: Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov is unlikely to be extradited from France to the United Arab Emirates because he holds the citizenshi...

MOSCOW: Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov is unlikely to be extradited from France to the United Arab Emirates because he holds the citizenship of both countries, lawyer Kaloy Akhilgov told TASS.

"Being placed on a wanted list is also not that straightforward. It does not automatically mean an Interpol red notice because the organization’s constitution prohibits intervention in political matters, and such notices are often not issued in these cases. In addition, Durov is a French citizen, and France does not extradite its own nationals," the lawyer noted.

The United Arab Emirates also does not extradite its own citizens because of a constitutional prohibition, he added.

Durov's French lawyer Philippe de Veulle expressed the same view in a conversation with TASS. He said that if Interpol were to issue a red notice at Russia’s request, it would not be immediately enforceable in France.

In addition to Russia and France, Durov holds the citizenship of the United Arab Emirates and Saint Kitts and Nevis

Russian authorities have charged Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov with assisting terrorist activities and have initiated procedures to place him on the international wanted list. According to Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), Telegram violated Russian law by failing to multiple channels, chats and bots that have been actively used by Ukrainian special services and terrorist and extremist organizations in plotting and orchestrating subversive and terrorist acts, mass killings, and cybercrime in Russia. More than 153,000 crimes involving the use of Telegram have been recorded in Russia since 2022, including the March 2024 attack on the Crocus City Hall concert venue outside Moscow, the killings of Russian bloggers and journalists Darya Dugina and Maxim Fomin, better known as Vladlen Tatarsky, and the deaths of nine senior military officers, including Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, head of Russia’s Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection Forces. Russia's telecom watchdog had sent more than 150,000 requests to Telegram seeking the removal of illegal content, but that the requests went unanswered.

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