Meets rights activists, seeks temporary asylum in Russia
American intelligence leaker Edward Snowden met with human rights activists and lawyers yesterday in a transit zone of a Russian airport, in his first public appearance since he left Hong Kong last month.
He has asked rights groups to lobby the Russian government to grant him temporary asylum, Russian Human Rights Watch representative Tanya Lokshina said. Snowden also said he wants to move to Latin America once he is able to do so, she said.
A photograph provided by a Russian Human Rights Watch staffer at the meeting shows him sitting behind a desk, looking much as he did when last photographed.
The former National Security Agency contractor is believed to have been holed up in a transit area of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport since leaving Hong Kong for Russia on June 23.
The meeting with Snowden began at around 5:00pm local time.
A CNN team at the airport saw about half a dozen people — including Russia’s human rights ombudsman and representatives of Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Russian human rights groups — enter a door marked “Private” in Terminal E. Police and security officers then kept the media at a distance.
Sergei Nikitin, head of Amnesty International’s Moscow office, who was at the meeting, said he was pleased to voice the organization’s support for Snowden in person.
WikiLeaks said in a post on Twitter that it would release Snowden’s statement to human rights groups later yesterday.
Snowden’s desire to be granted temporary asylum in Russia may represent something of a turnaround.
He last week reportedly withdrew his asylum request with Russian authorities after President Vladimir Putin said he would have to “stop his work aimed at harming our American partners” if he wanted to stay in the country.
Snowden has been technically a free man while in Moscow but has been unable to travel after US authorities revoked his passport when he was charged with espionage.
A letter purportedly e-mailed by Snowden that invited human rights groups and others to the meeting blasted the United States for “threatening behavior” and carrying out illegal actions against him.
“Never before in history have states conspired to force to the ground a sovereign President’s plane to effect a search for a political refugee,” the letter says.
Source: The Daily Star
