Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) — Telegram founder Pavel Durov made a statement regarding his arrest in France.

In his statement, he revealed that he was interrogated by the police for four days after arriving in Paris at the end of August.

"I was told that I could be personally responsible for the illegal use of Telegram by others. This statement perplexes me for several reasons," Durov noted.

He emphasized that he had long facilitated the establishment of a hotline between Telegram and French authorities to combat terrorism.

He mentioned that Telegram has an official representative in the EU who receives and responds to requests from the EU. The representative's email address is publicly available for everyone. According to him, to find the address, one needs to search in Google for "Telegram address in the EU for law enforcement agencies."

According to Durov, standard practice should involve filing a lawsuit against the service itself, rather than the platform’s owner, if the state has grievances.

Durov criticized the use of outdated laws to hold platform leaders accountable for third-party actions and expressed his commitment to finding the right balance between privacy and security in collaboration with regulators.

He also reiterated Telegram’s mission to protect users, especially in authoritarian regimes, and mentioned past instances where Telegram was blocked in Russia and Iran for refusing to comply with demands that violated the company’s principles.

Durov ended by highlighting Telegram’s ongoing efforts to improve moderation and transparency in response to the platform’s rapid growth to 950 million users.

On 24 August, Durov was arrested at Le Bourget airport in Paris and is suspected of ten offenses, including involvement in illegal transactions by organized groups. He faces up to 10 years in prison.

Four days later, Durov was released on bail of five million euros and must remain in France while reporting to the police twice a week.