Snowden checked out from the Mira Hotel in Hong Kong Monday, right after the US government called for his extradition.
Although he went off the radar on Monday, it is believed that Snowden is still in Hong Kong, the BBC reported.
Experts believe Snowden faces the risk of extradition, since the US has an extradition agreement with Hong Kong. According to the treaty, a person faces extradition if he or she has committed any offence which is “punishable under the laws of both Parties by imprisonment or other form of detention for more than one year, or by a more severe penalty, unless surrender for such offence is prohibited by the laws of the requested Party.”
However, if Snowden manages to escape from Hong Kong, he might get political asylum in Russia. According to Russia Today, the government in Moscow is willing to consider granting asylum to Snowden.
“If we receive such a request, we will consider it,” President Vladimir Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov said.
Snowden revealed his identity Sunday, a couple of days after handing over secret documents of the NSA’s electronic surveillance program to the media.
“I really want the focus to be on these documents and the debate which I hope this will trigger among citizens around the globe about what kind of world we want to live in,” he said in an exclusive interview with the UK’s The Guardian. “My sole motive is to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them.”
The Guardian revealed last Thursday that the NSA has been collecting the phone records of millions of American customers from one of the largest telecom providers – Verizon. Another discovery came in less than 24 hours, later when The Guardian and The Washington Post reported that US spy agencies had been mining Internet data.
No comments:
Post a Comment