Saturday 13 July 2013

Snowden asks for provisional asylum in Russia

Snowden wants asylum in Russia, ready to meet condition not to damage US

NSA leaker & former CIA employee Edward Snowden has asked for political asylum in Russia, saying he could not fly to Latin America, according to human rights activists who met the whistleblower at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport.



RT,
12 July, 2013

According to Tatyana Lokshina of Human Rights Watch, Snowden seeks to stay in Russia as he “can’t fly to Latin America yet.”

When asked if the NSA leaker has any more revelations, Lokshina responded: “He says that his job is done.”


Human Rights Watch deputy director Tanya Lokshina (C) speaks to journalists after arriving at Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow July 12, 2013 (Reuters / Tatyana Makeyeva)

Snowden asked the human rights activists to petition the US and European states not to interfere with his asylum process, she said. The former NSA contractor also asked to intervene with President Putin on his behalf, Lokshina added.

Snowden said he is ready to ask Russia for political asylum and that he “does not intend to harm the US,” according to Russian State Duma MP Vyacheslav Nikonov.

No actions I take or plan are meant to harm the US... I want the US to succeed,” Snowden said.



Эдвард Сноуден. Фото: Татьяна Локшина из " Human Rights Watch" (Guardian) pic.twitter.com/OsfTHxn16B
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Snowden said he does not rule out moving to live in a Latin American country. However, the recent incident in which the Bolivian President Evo Morales’ plane was grounded in Austria on suspicion that the NSA leaker was on board discourages Snowden from going there now.

First, he said that he was dissatisfied with European countries after the Bolivian president’s plane was inspected. He wants to seek political asylum, at least temporary shelter, in Russia. But his further actions are unclear,” Nikitin said.


RELEASE: Statement read by Edward to human rights groups at Moscow airport today http://wikileaks.org/Statement-by-Edward-Snowden-to.html 


According to human rights lawyer Anatoly Kucherena, the request for political asylum has already been written by Snowden. Kucherena said he will provide legal support for the former NSA contractor seeking asylum.

The Russian authorities should be able to decide on Snowden’s asylum request in two to three weeks’ time, he added.

(L-R) Lawyers Genry Reznik and Anatoly Kucherena, the head of the Soprotivlenie human-rights movement, Olga Kostina, Russia's Human Rights Ombudsman, Vladimir Lukin, speak with journalists inside the terminal F of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport, on July 12, 2013 (AFP Photo / Kirill Kudryavtsev)

Meanwhile, Russia’s presidential human rights ombudsman Vladimir Lukin suggested that it would be better for Snowden to ask the UN or the ICRC for refugee status instead of seeking asylum in Russia. That way it won’t harm Russian-American relations, he added.

The US Embassy called several rights activists before their meeting with Snowden, asking to deliver the official American stance on his actions.

It is true that I received a call from the American Embassy in the name of [US Ambassador to Russia Michael] McFaul, in which I was asked to deliver to Snowden the US official stand, which says he is not considered a rights activist, that he broke the law and therefore must be made accountable,” Lokshina confirmed to RIA Novosti.

However, Washington denied that US diplomats asked Human Rights Watch to deliver a message to Snowden.

We simply explained our position on Snowden to a representative of Human Rights Watch,” a source at the US Department of State told Interfax.

Thirteen Russian and international human rights advocates and lawyers have gathered at Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport for a meeting with Snowden. The whistleblower said the living conditions were fine at the airport and he felt safe there, but he knows he can't stay there forever, according to Lokshina.


Another photo of , copyright @hrw's @TanyaLokshina @Peter_Markovski @MarkMemmottNPR @superernie pic.twitter.com/jT2f9T4NQ0
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Rights advocates who received letters from Snowden and agreed to come to the meeting included representatives of Amnesty International, Transparency International, Human Rights Watch and other organizations, as well as well-known Russian lawyers.

The meeting started behind closed doors in an undisclosed area of Sheremetyevo’s Terminal F.

Meanwhile, several hundred journalists have surrounded a gray ‘staff only’ door guarded by airport security, awaiting for comments from the meeting participants.

The Russian president’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded by saying the Kremlin has not yet received any formal asylum request from Snowden. The conditions for his staying in Russia remain the same as voiced by Vladimir Putin earlier, he added.

Should Snowden apply for asylum, Russia will consider his request, Peskov said.

Russia was one of over twenty countries to which Snowden sent asylum request according to Wikileaks. President Vladimir Putin said then Snowden may stay in Russia, if he wants to, but only if he stops activities aimed against the United States.

There is one condition if he wants to remain here: he must stop his work aimed at damaging our American partners. As odd as it may sound from me,” Putin told a media conference in Moscow.

In Putin’s opinion, Snowden considers himself “a fighter for human rights” and it seems unlikely that he is going to stop leaking American secret data.

However, Russia is not going to extradite Snowden, the president underlined.

Russia has never extradited anyone and is not going to do so. Same as no one has ever been extradited to Russia,” Putin stated.

Snowden, by sincere conviction or for some other reason, considers himself to be a human rights activist, a fighter for the ideals of democracy and human freedom. Russian human rights activists and organizations, as well as their colleagues abroad acknowledge this. For this reason, extraditing Snowden to a country like the US where capital punishment is enforced is impossible,” Peskov explained to press


'My asylee status now formal': Snowden declares 'acceptance' of all offers of asylum
Edward Snowden says his asylum status is now official as he accepts all offers made to him. "No state has a basis by which to limit or interfere with my right to enjoy that asylum," he said in the statement published by WikiLeaks


RT,
12 July, 2013

.

I announce today my formal acceptance of all offers of support or asylum I have been extended and all others that may be offered in the future,” Snowden stated on Friday during his meeting with rights activists and lawyers at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport.

With, for example, the grant of asylum provided by Venezuela’s President Maduro, my asylee status is now formal,” his address reads.

Snowden also said that he is going to seek asylum in Russia, since he cannot fly to Latin America yet. The whistleblower is set to submit his bid on Friday and hopes “it will be accepted favorably.”

I ask for your assistance in requesting guarantees of safe passage from the relevant nations in securing my travel to Latin America, as well as requesting asylum in Russia until such time as these states accede to law and my legal travel is permitted,” he told the meeting, attended by some 13 representatives of rights organizations.


RELEASE: Statement read by Edward to human rights groups at Moscow airport today http://wikileaks.org/Statement-by-Edward-Snowden-to.html 



The former CIA employee is wanted in the US on charges of espionage after revealing secret NSA surveillance programs and could face the death penalty in his home country. He fled American soil for Hong Kong in May and then flew to Moscow, where he has been stuck at the airport transit zone for almost three weeks.

Addressing rights activists, he recalled that only a short while ago he had family, comfortable live and a home in paradise.

I also had the capability without any warrant to search for, seize, and read your communications. Anyone’s communications at any time. That is the power to change people’s fates,” Snowden stated, adding that such power is also a serious violation of the law.

The 4th and 5th Amendments to the Constitution of my country, Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and numerous statutes and treaties forbid such systems of massive, pervasive surveillance,” the whistleblower pointed out.

While the US Constitution marks these programs as illegal, my government argues that secret court rulings, which the world is not permitted to see, somehow legitimize an illegal affair. These rulings simply corrupt the most basic notion of justice – that it must be seen to be done. The immoral cannot be made moral through the use of secret law,” Snowden believes.

The 30-year-old explained what was behind his decision to leak the secret NSA spying programs. He said he did what he believed to be right and “began a campaign to correct this wrongdoing.” Snowden underlined that he did not seek to enrich himself, or to sell American secrets.

I took what I knew to the public, so what affects all of us can be discussed by all of us in the light of day, and I asked the world for justice,” Snowden said, adding that he does not regret his decision.

The US has launched a persecution campaign in response, “threatening with sanctions” countries who stand up for Snowden’s rights. The American government has “even taken the unprecedented step of ordering military allies to ground a Latin American president’s plane in search of a political refugee,” he said, referring to Bolivian aircraft incident.

I have been made stateless and hounded for my act of political expression,” the whistleblower added.

Snowden expressed his gratitude to countries that offered him asylum and support, despite “historically disproportionate aggression” by the US.

So far, three countries in Latin America – Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua – said they could offer Asylum to the American whistleblower.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had earlier stated that Moscow would grant him asylum if he stopped activities aimed at harming “our American partners.”

Snowden agreed to Moscow’s condition on Friday, according to Russian lawmaker Vyacheslav Nikonov, who took part in the Moscow meeting with the former CIA employee.

He said he is aware of that condition and it would be easy for him to accept it. He is not going to harm the US because he is a patriot of his country,” Nikonov told journalists after the gathering.

When asked whether Snowden had more revelations up his sleeve, Tatyana Lokshina of Human Rights Watch replied, “He says that his job is done.”

Moscow could decide to grant political asylum to Snowden within two to three weeks, lawyer and Public Chamber member Anatoly Kucherena said.


And for the predictable response from Washington -

White House: Snowden must be returned to US & face charges


Whistleblowing website Wikileaks has released Edward Snowden's statement to human rights groups in Moscow. In it the former NSA contractor asks for assistance in getting asylum in Russia until he can legally travel to Latin America. The White House said Friday that Russia granting political asylum to Edward Snowden would be on par with providing the National Security Agency leaker with a "propaganda platform" to further harm the United States.



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