WASHINGTON: Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, who fled to Moscow last year after revealing details of massive US intelligence-gathering programmes, expects his asylum status in Russia to be renewed before it expires this summer, his lawyer said.
Snowden and documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras, who worked with Snowden to reveal NSA documents he took from his job, were given the Ridenhour Prize for Truth-Telling, an award to promote transparency and whistle-blowing, at a ceremony in Washington on Wednesday. Snowden appeared on a video link-up from Russia and Poitras appeared from Berlin.
Jesselyn Radack, an attorney for Snowden, said his temporary asylum in Russia will expire at the end of June but that “prospects are good” for it to be renewed. “Obviously, he misses America and would like to be able to come home,” she said. “We just don’t see that happening in the near future.”
Snowden was believed to have taken 1.7 million computerised documents. The leaked documents revealed massive programs run by the NSA that gathered information on emails, phone calls and Internet use by hundreds of millions of Americans. The US surveillance programmes also had international reach, including monitoring German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cellphone.
Reuters
