The lawyer for Telegram boss Pavel Durov said it was, "totally absurd to suggest that the head of a social network" such as his client could be involved in criminal acts, as the tech founder was granted bail in Paris but handed a travel ban.
"Telegram fully abides with European rules on digital. It is a moderator whose rules are similar to those of other social networks," David-Olivier Kaminski told several reporters.
A French judge put Durov under formal investigation on Wednesday in a probe into organised crime on the messaging app, but granted the entrepreneur bail on condition he pays five million euros (AED 20 million), reports twice a week to police and does not leave French territory.
Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said in a statement the judge found there were grounds to formally investigate Durov on all the charges for which he was arrested four days ago.
They include suspected complicity in running an online platform that allows illicit transactions, images of child sex abuse, drug trafficking and fraud, as well as the refusal to communicate information to authorities, money laundering and providing cryptographic services to criminals.
Durov's lawyer did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Pakistan and Afghanistan agreed to a 'temporary ceasefire' on Wednesday, Islamabad said, after an airstrike and ground fighting sent tensions between the South Asian neighbours soaring, killing more than a dozen civilians.
Israel will allow Gaza's Rafah border crossing with Egypt to open on Wednesday and increase the amount of humanitarian aid coming into the enclave, public broadcaster Kan reported, after Hamas handed over more bodies of deceased hostages.
Fresh fighting broke out on Wednesday along the volatile Pakistan-Afghanistan border, killing more than a dozen civilians and troops to shatter a fragile peace after weekend clashes that killed dozens.
Toxic gas and a locked door that barred access to a roof were responsible for most of the deaths in a devastating fire in a Bangladesh garment factory and an adjoining chemical warehouse, a fire official said on Wednesday.
Kenya's veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga, who was imprisoned while fighting one-party autocracy and ran five times unsuccessfully for the presidency, has died at the age of 80, sources close to him said on Wednesday.