Security forces in France and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have hacked the phone of businessman and founder of the Telegram messenger Pavel Durov, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing its sources.
Author:
https://rb.ru/author/ntihonov/
Subscribe to RB.RU on Telegram
The publication’s sources confirmed that French leader Emmanuel Macron, meeting Durov over lunch in 2018, made a proposal to move Telegram’s headquarters to Paris, but the billionaire refused. The French president also broached the issue of granting him French citizenship, and three years later the businessman received it.
Only in 2017, a year before the lunch, France, together with the United Arab Emirates, carried out an espionage operation against Durov. It was called Purple Music. At that time, his iPhone was hacked. The French intelligence services were very concerned about the fact that the messenger was used by militants of the terrorist organization “Islamic State”*, banned in Russia. According to WSJ, new members of the group were recruited via Telegram.
Durov was arrested on August 24 at Paris airport, from where he flew in his private jet from Baku. The Telegram founder’s case included 12 charges, including refusal to cooperate with authorities.
Author:
Nikolai Tikhonov
Source: RB
I am a professional journalist and content creator with extensive experience writing for news websites. I currently work as an author at Gadget Onus, where I specialize in covering hot news topics. My written pieces have been published on some of the biggest media outlets around the world, including The Guardian and BBC News.
