During a rare interview with the Financial Times in February, Telegram’s chief executive Pavel Durov boasted of having a “perfect job, perfect life”.

Sitting in his gleaming office on the 35th floor of a Dubai skyscraper, the Russian-born billionaire explained the meaning behind his messaging app’s logo — a white paper aeroplane against a blue background. “For me, it symbolises a free entity that can move in three dimensions and is not restricted by boundaries or geographic constraints,” he said.

Six months later, Durov’s charmed life has been upended and his own existence as a free entity is at stake. The elusive entrepreneur is facing a possible prison sentence in France following his arrest at an airport on Saturday. He is accused of failing to tackle criminality on Telegram — including child pornography, drug peddling and fraud — and refusing to co-operate with police data requests. A French and Emirati citizen, he has been released from custody but barred from leaving the country.