Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of social messaging app Telegram, has been allowed to fly home to Dubai as French authorities continue their unprecedented case against him.
The tech billionaire was arrested in August after being accused of failing to properly moderate his app to reduce criminality.
Mr Durov denies failing to cooperate with law enforcement over drug trafficking, child sexual abuse content and fraud. Telegram has previously denied having insufficient moderation.
It is the first time a tech leader has been arrested for criminality taking place on their platform.
Mr Durov said in a post on his Telegram channel: “The process is ongoing but it feels great to be home.”
The 40-year-old was arrested in August 2024 as he arrived in Paris on his private jet, and French judges initially did not allow him to leave France.
But in a statement on Monday, the French court said “the obligations of judicial supervision” had been suspended between 15 March and 7 April.
No further details were given about the conditions of his release from France.
Mr Durov lives in Dubai and was born in Russia, where he has citizenship, as well as in France, the United Arab Emirates and the Caribbean island nation of St Kitts and Nevis.
Telegram is particularly popular in Russia, Ukraine and former Soviet Union states as well as Iran.
Telegram is used by around 950 million people worldwide and has previously positioned itself as an app focussed on its users’ privacy, rather than the normal policies prioritised by other global social media companies.
But reporting from the BBC and other news organisations highlighted criminals using the app to advertise drugs as well as offer cybercrime and fraud services and, most recently, child sexual abuse material.
It led one expert to brand it “the dark web in your pocket“.
The firm has previously said his arrest is unfair, and he should not be held liable for what users do on the platform.
From his home in Dubai, Mr Durov thanked the French judges for letting him go home.
He also thanked his lawyers for their “relentless efforts in demonstrating that, when it comes to moderation, cooperation, and fighting crime, for years Telegram not only met but exceeded its legal obligations”.
However, since the arrest, Telegram has made a series of changes to the way it operates.
It has joined the Internet Watch Foundation programme, which aims to help find, remove and report child sexual abuse material being shared online.
It has also announced IP addresses and phone numbers of those who violate its rules will be handed over to police in response to valid legal requests.
And it has published transparency reports about how much content is taken down – a standard industry practice it had previously refused to comply with.
