14 DAY TRIAL // It looks like Edward Snowden finally has some options on the table in regards to his future. Switzerland is reportedly quite ready to welcome Snowden and promises not to extradite him to the United States if he travels to the country to testify against the NSA’s spying activities.
Local media site Sonntags Zeitung reports that the country’s Attorney General states that Snowden should be guaranteed safety if he arrives to the country to testify. In a document titled “What rules are to be followed if Edward Snowden is brought to Switzerland and then the United States makes an extradition request,” the whistleblower is to be protected.
His safety is to be ensured by inviting him as a witness to a parliamentary hearing that focuses on the NSA’s tendency to spy on everyone in the world, including friendly governments and innocent citizens.
The file points out that Switzerland will not extradite a US citizen if the individual’s actions are a political offense, or if the request has been politically motivated. Therefore, if it is ruled that the charges against the whistleblower have a “predominantly political character,” then Snowden is completely safe in Switzerland.
There are some obstacles, however, such as the existence of some higher-level government commitments, which must be verified in advance before Snowden is invited to testify in person.
Snowden could end up under Swiss asylum
Marcel Bosonnet, a lawyer from Zurich who represents Snowden’s interests in the country, says he is pleased with the assessment presented by the Attorney General and considers that the legal requirements for safety are met. He adds that Snowden has already shown interest in testifying for Switzerland, although he has done the same for most other countries that have launched an investigation into NSA’s wrongdoings.
He has, so far, communicated with several countries via letters or video, answering questions that had been previously sent to him.
If Snowden gets to safely travel to Switzerland, he might even have a shot at obtaining asylum in the country. Immigration rights activist Sarah Progin-Theuerkauf says that there’s evidence that the whistleblower meets the necessary criteria to request refugee status under the Geneva Convention, which means that he should also be granted asylum.
Swiss politicians are quite happy with the way things are going and are quite eager to get to question Snowden on the NSA scandal, some of them urging for the meeting to happen as soon as possible.
Snowden can stay an extra three years in Russia
Edward Snowden has been in Russia since last year, when he landed there on his way to Cuba. Left without a valid passport, the whistleblower was stuck in a Moscow airport for a month before he was granted temporary asylum in the country.
His stay was extended this year, when he was granted a three-year residence permit in the country. In the time spent in Russia, he has expressed that he is willing to consider traveling to another country if his safety is guaranteed and if he is not going to be extradited to the United States.
Despite a lot of outrage expressed in light of various NSA revelations in many countries that found themselves on the agency’s target list, few have had the backbone to stand up for Snowden and to promise him safety regardless of what the US government wants.
Snowden is wanted by the US on charges of espionage and theft of government property after grabbing countless documents from the NSA’s servers and exposing to the world the many gratuitous spying practices of the agency who likes to collect data in bulk, without caring whether individuals are perfectly innocent or about their right to privacy.