UPDATE: Court acknowledges fine for Telegram legal

(Rewrites throughout)

MOSCOW, Dec 12 (PRIME) -- The Meshchansky District Court of Moscow has turned down an appeal of Messenger Telegram LLP and acknowledged a fine of 800,000 rubles imposed on the company legal, according to information obtained by PRIME in the court on Tuesday.

During the hearing, lawyer Dmitry Dinze said that the fine was imposed on request of the Federal Security Service (FSB) after the company refused to provide the service with information that would allow it to decode messages of people accused under a criminal case following a terrorist act in St. Petersburg.

Earlier on Tuesday, the company’s lawyer Ramil Akhmetgaliyev asked the court to bring an FSB representative and a prosecutor into proceedings, but the court turned down the request.

Previously, the FSB demanded the company provide information that will allow the service to decode messages sent through the Telegram messenger application, but it refused and in October a Moscow district magistrate’s court fined Telegram with 800,000 rubles. Telegram’s founder Pavel Durov said the service’s demand contradicts Constitution and is technically impossible.

(59.2348 rubles – U.S. $1)

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