Telegram Founder Pavel Durov Faces Life Imprisonment in Russia on Terrorism Facilitation Charges

Moscow (ANTARA) - Telegram founder Pavel Durov faces a lengthy prison sentence of up to life imprisonment if found guilty of charges of aiding and facilitating terrorist activities, his lawyer Oleg Zernov told the RIA Novosti news agency on Wednesday.

Zernov explained that inciting, recruiting or involving others in terrorist criminal acts carries a penalty of eight to 15 years in prison, or even life imprisonment.

Earlier the same day, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) stated that Durov had been placed on an international wanted list.

Durov is charged under Article 205.1, Paragraph 1.1 of the Russian Criminal Code relating to acts facilitating terrorism.

According to the FSB, Telegram’s management was deemed to have failed to remove channels, chat groups and bots used by Ukrainian intelligence agencies to plan acts of sabotage, terrorist attacks in Russia, mass killings and cyber fraud.

These activities were reported to have claimed many lives and caused material losses amounting to billions.

Telegram is an instant messaging platform that allows its users to exchange messages and multimedia files in various formats.

Founded by Durov in 2013, Telegram is now recorded as having more than 1 billion monthly active users.

Source: Sputnik/RIA Novosti