French Lawyer Says Telegram CEO Durov Could Wait 10 Years for Trial

A French lawyer with experience in state security cases has said the CEO of Telegram, Pavel Durov, could be made to wait 10 years for his trial on charges of complicity in criminal offenses.
Maud Marian, a Paris-based defense lawyer, told The Epoch Times she suspects the prosecutor in charge of the case, Laure Beccuau, wants “information” from Durov and does not necessarily want to put him on trial.
By contrast, Sadry Porlon, a French lawyer who specializes in information technology law, disagreed and said the issues involved were relatively straightforward and could be quickly resolved.
Durov is not the first executive to be arrested and charged in connection with an encryption device or app.
In 2021, Thomas Herdman, a Canadian national, was extradited from Spain to France and charged with 22 offenses relating to the Sky ECC network.
Herdman, who denies any wrongdoing, has been held in Fleury-Merogis prison near Paris for three years and still has not been given a trial date.
Marian said considering Herdman’s case, Durov could expect an even longer wait time for a trial.
“Ten years is not unusual when the case is linked, in one way or another, to state security,” said Marian.
She said a trial should be set more quickly when someone is waiting in jail.
“It’s a tactic of the French justice system, that they will take all the time they need because what they want is information, and when an investigation is open, they can investigate anybody and everything,” she said.
“It should not be okay, but it is. It is really very common.”
Durov was indicted on Aug. 28—the French legal term is mis en examen—and under it, his defense counsel, David-Olivier Kaminski, can submit requests to the investigating judge.
Kaminski told French media in the wake of the indictment, that “it’s totally absurd to think that the person in charge of a social network could be implicated in criminal acts that don’t concern him, directly or indirectly.”
Durov is being prosecuted under new legislation, known as the Guidance and Programming Act (LOPMI), which was passed in January 2023 with little fanfare.
“As of April 24, 2023, any natural or legal person who is the victim of loss or damage caused by a cyber-attack in the course of their professional activity will have to file a complaint within 72 hours of knowledge of this breach in order to be able to be compensated by their insurer,” the announcement stated.
It appears Beccuau and the J3 cybercrime unit of the Paris prosecutor’s office are now trying to use the LOPMI law against Durov.
In a radio interview last week, Beccuau said LOPMI is a powerful tool for battling organized crime groups online.
Porlon, the telecommunications lawyer, said the Act created a new offense of “administering an online platform offering illicit products” and strengthened the means of investigation relating to cybercrime.
Porlon said Durov had been charged with conspiracy, meaning under the French penal code, “an accomplice to the crime or offense envisaged is sentenced to the same penalty as the person who is the main perpetrator.”
Porlon said judges take other factors into account, “but this does not prevent the criminal risk weighing on Pavel Durov’s head from being equivalent to that of its users who can be qualified as the perpetrator of the offense.”
“It would not be a question of saying that Mr. Durov actively participates in all the offenses committed on his platform,” Porlon said.
“But … by not doing what was necessary—in particular by not acting promptly once the content has been reported by state authorities—he could be accused of being an accomplice.”
Porlon said he very much doubts Durov will have to wait 10 years for a judicial outcome.
She said the “strange part” for Durov is that prosecutors are using the law to prosecute him on the grounds that he had launched an online platform “to commit crimes.”
Marian agreed and said it is ridiculous to suggest Telegram was designed with the purpose of committing crimes and that millions of politicians, journalists, and other professionals, including French President Emmanuel Macron, uses it for legitimate purposes.
“They are trying to prosecute Durov in a very strange way, which is complicity in opening a platform with the finality to commit crimes, which is a very strange way to proceed,” she said.
“Facebook or WhatsApp or whatever, any social network or any website or any way of telecommunication, can be used with a criminal intention, but it is not the finality of it,” Marian said.
She said the LOPMI legislation had invented a “new crime,” which was being used against Durov.
“It should not even exist, in my opinion, it is not useful,” Marian said.
But Porlon said, “The Telegram platform is accused of not having done what was necessary to ensure that ’the information or documents necessary for the implementation and exploitation of interceptions authorized by law’ were communicated to the judicial authorities.”
The Epoch Times has contacted the Paris prosecutor’s office but has not received a response.