On August 29, French President Emmanuel Macron held a press conference during a diplomatic visit to Serbia. In a televised press conference, Macron said that he had not invited Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov to France and was completely unaware of Durov's trip. According to a translation of the French president's remarks, Macron said:

“For my part, I was completely unaware of Mr. Durov’s visit to France. This is completely normal because I cannot keep track of every visit by citizens from all over the world, whether they have French nationality or not.”

President Macron

President Macron also affirmed that Durov's case would be handled by the “independent action of the French judicial system.”

The decision to arrest Durov has drawn a strong global backlash, with Macron insisting that the decision to detain the tech entrepreneur was not politically motivated.

Durov has now been formally charged by French prosecutors and is out on bail of €5 million. However, he is required to remain in France and report to law enforcement on a weekly basis.

Global wave of criticism against France and Macron

Immediately after Durov's arrest, Macron faced fierce criticism from the international community, including leaders in the crypto and technology sectors. Some even compared the situation to the last days of the Soviet Union and other dictatorships.

During Durov’s initial detention, Gabor Gurbacs, former head of digital asset strategy at VanEck, questioned Macron’s denial of political motives: “Do you arrest people and then look to see if they did anything wrong? Is this the ‘rule of law’ and ‘freedom of expression’ you’re talking about?”

Helius Labs CEO Mert Mumtaz also questioned the French President: “Why aren’t you in jail for not having 100% control over crime in France?” The Solana developer also told Macron:

“You can't blame the founders personally and sentence them to 20 years for failing to censor their speech, while claiming to be deeply committed to free speech.”

Durov’s arrest has raised concerns about a broader crackdown on decentralized technology and free-speech tech entrepreneurs, prompting Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski to leave Europe after his company allegedly received threats from French officials.

Source: https://tapchibitcoin.io/president-of-france-macron-phu-nhan-viec-moi-pavel-durov-den-phap-de-lua-bat.html