Reports are emerging that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) government has frozen billions of dollars worth of contracts with France from whom it was going to buy 80 fighter jets. The reason: Telegram CEO Pavel Durov is a dual citizen with the United Arab Emirates being one of the 2 countries he is a citizen of.
France arrested Durov as he got off a plane in Paris, charging him with "Complicity" in alleged crimes carried out on - or through - his encrypted messaging app, TELEGRAM.
The arrest of the 39-year-old technology billionaire prompted on Sunday a warning from Moscow to Paris that he should be accorded his rights, and criticism from X owner Elon Musk, who said that free speech in Europe was under attack.
Charging this CEO for crimes committed by others who were using his app, would be like charging the maker of BIC pens for bad checks written by people . . . it makes no sense.
But authorities in France - and other Western nations - do not like the fact that they cannot eavesdrop and spy on TELEGRAM users; so they're charging the CEO with "complicity" because he won't create a back-door for governments to spy.
The trouble for France right now, is that governments all over the world, have also been using TELEGRAM because it is so secure, and those governments do not want the French - or other Western nations - to gain access to the encrypted communications undertaken by those governments!
The UAE, for instance, uses TELEGRAM widely for its military. The UAE does not want anyone having access to those communications.
So now, the TELEGRAM CEO is sitting in a French jail cell, charged with ALLEGED crimes committed by others - almost none of which have actually been proven anywhere - and France is now reaping the whirlwind by seeing an initial $10 billion in commercial business deals "frozen" because of what France is doing to the TELEGRAM CEO.
UPDATE 10:18 AM EDT --
The investigating judge has terminated Pavel Durov's detention in police custody for his initial interrogation and possible filing of charges.
(HT Remark: Gee, that didn't take long. It's amazing what can happen when $10 billion is suddenly at stake!
Turns out, this does NOT mean he is free. He has been transferred from the police, to the court, in Paris. There, the court will decide if he is to be held for investigation and/or charged.)
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