Multiple nations on tuesday rejected the asylum requests from Edward
Snowden, the former NSA agent contractor wantedby the United States
for disclosing secrets,despite an appeal by Venezuela for his
protection
Snowden who brought the world attention to the PRISM Spy scandal has
applied to several countrie for amnesty but to no avail, the 30 year
old is now in limboas he has no legal travel documents andno Russian
visa to exit the airport.
Yesterday after 9 days of silence he challenged the US government
saying he was free to publish more about its programs and that he was
illegally persecuted.
Russia had initially told him he will get amnesty in the Motherland if
he would give up his anti-Americanist behavior but he refused and now
country after country keeps on denying him entry
Venezuela, part of an alliance of leftist governments in Latin
America, said it was time to stop berating a man who has "done
something very important forhumanity".
"He deserves the world's protection," President Nicolas Maduro told
Reuters during a visit to Moscow.
"He has a right to protection because the United States in its actions
is persecuting him...Why are they persecuting him? What has he done?
Did he launch a missile and kill someone? Did he rig a bomb and kill
someone? No. He is preventing war.
Maduro said he would consider an asylum application. Snowden's request
for safety in Ecuador, which has sheltered the founder of antisecrecy
group WikiLeaks Julian Assange in its London embassy, has seemingly
ended.
U.S. President Barack Obama has made clear to a number of countries
that granting him asylum would carry costs.
Snowden has prepared asylum requests in countries including India,
China, Brazil, Ireland, Austria, Bolivia, Cuba, Finland, France,
Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, Norway, Poland, Spain,
Switzerland and Venezuela, WikiLeaks has said.
But several countries, including Snowden's favored Ecuador, said on
Tuesday they could not consider an asylum request from Snowden unless
hewas on their territory.
Norway said he was unlikely to get asylum there, and Poland said it
would not give a "positive recommendation" to any request. Finland,
Spain, Ireland and Austria said he had to be in their countries to
make a request, while Indiasaid "we see no reason" to accept his
petition.
France said it had not received a request.
Officials in Russia, which has made clearit wants Snowden to leave,
say an embassy car would be considered foreign territory if a country
picked himup - possibly a message to leaders of oil-producing
countries in Moscow for talks this week.
Moscow is unwilling to send Snowden to the United States, a move that
could make it look weak, and has no extradition treaty with
Washington. But it also does not want to damage ties with the United
States over a man with whom Putin, a former KGB spy, has little
sympathy.
At a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Brunei,
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said he had raised Snowden "from
our point of view" despite the affair not being in their domain.
"Russia has never extradited anyone, is not extraditing anyone and
will not extradite anyone," Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told
reporters.
Peskov said Snowden showed no sign ofstopping releasing secret U.S.
documents and added that he had abandoned his intention of staying in
Russia.
In an undated letter to Ecuador's Correaseen by Reuters, Snowden said
he was "dedicated to the fight for justice in this unequal world". "I
remain free and able to publish information that serves the public
interest," Snowden said in the letter.
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