French President Emmanuel Macron has defended a decision to grant fast-track citizenship to indicted Telegram CEO Pavel Durov.

Speaking at a news conference during a visit to Serbia, Macron said that granting nationality to high-profile figures who learn French and contribute to the nation is “good for our country”.

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“It’s part of a strategy to allow women and men, whether artists, athletes or entrepreneurs, when they make the effort to learn the French language and that they develop wealth, innovation … to be given French nationality,” Macron said.

Macron said he had no prior knowledge that Durov was travelling to France before his arrest on Saturday, after the Le Canard Enchaine newspaper reported that Durov told police that he was planning to meet the French leader.

“I was absolutely not aware of Mr Durov’s arrival in France,’’ Macron said, describing Durov’s arrest as “an independent act of French justice”.

“It is false that I offered any kind of invitation to him.’’

“We are a country where there is a separation of powers,” Macron added.

French prosecutors have accused Durov of “complicity” in criminal activity on the messaging app Telegram, including drug trafficking and the distribution of child sex abuse material.

They also accuse the Russian-born billionaire of refusing to share documents sought in investigations by law enforcement.

Durov’s lawyer David-Olivier Kaminski has described it as “totally absurd” to implicate the owner of a social network in crimes that “don’t concern him, directly or indirectly”.

Durov’s arrest has reignited long-simmering debates about freedom of speech, privacy and policing harm in the online world.

Prominent tech founders and internet freedom advocates, including X owner Elon Musk, whistleblower Edward Snowden and ProtonMail founder Andy Yen, have condemned French authorities over the case, casting it as a threat to freedom of expression.

Russia has also voiced concern, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov warning French authorities not to turn the case into a “political persecution”.