Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega says his government would grant US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden political asylum “if circumstances permit” it.
“We are open, respectful of the right to asylum, and it is clear that if circumstances permit it, we would receive Snowden with pleasure and give him asylum here in Nicaragua,” AFP quoted Ortega as saying on Friday.
The president said his government has received an asylum application at its embassy in Moscow.
Snowden, a former CIA employee, has been holed up at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport since June 23 when he travelled from Hong Kong to avoid US extradition.
He has already sought asylum in 20 countries. The countries are China, India, Cuba, Brazil, Bolivia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Italy, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Austria, Finland, France, Germany and Iceland.
The US has revoked Snowdenâ„¢s passport, with State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki saying the fugitive Å“should not be allowed to proceed in any further international travel, other than is necessary to return him to the US.”
Snowden leaked two top secret US government spying programs under which the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are eavesdropping on millions of American and European phone records and the Internet data from major Internet companies such as Facebook, Yahoo, Google, Apple, and Microsoft.
On June 9, Snowden admitted his role in the leaks in a 12-minute video recorded interview published by The Guardian.
In the interview, he denounced what he described as systematic surveillance of innocent US citizens, saying his “sole motive is to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them.”
Washington, which says Snowden must be tried on espionage charges for disclosing government spying programs, had ordered some European countries to prevent the flight carrying Bolivian President Evo Morales from using their airspace on Tuesday over alleged suspicion that the whistleblower was on board the plane.
MN/MHB
Republished with permission from: Press TV