14 DAY TRIAL // Edward Snowden will be asking Russian authorities for formal protection, his lawyer said. The decision comes after various media outlets published statements coming from American spies who expressed their desire to kill the whistleblower.
According to RT, his lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, said that they were concerned with the situation. “We see the statements made by some US officials containing potential and implicit threats and openly calling for causing him bodily harm,” the lawyer said.
Most recently, an article published by BuzzFeed quoted several intelligence officers who had no qualms about expressing, in detail, just how they wished to assassinate Snowden.
“We would end it very quickly... Just casually walking on the streets of Moscow, coming back from buying his groceries. Going back to his flat and he is casually poked by a passerby. He thinks nothing of it at the time starts to feel a little woozy and thinks it’s a parasite from the local water. He goes home very innocently and next thing you know he dies in the shower,” one said.
Further back, in October, former NSA chief Michael Hayden said that he would put Snowden on a “different” list after the whistleblower was nominated for the Sakharov prize for human rights.
“This is a real death threat and we are concerned about the fact it has prompted no reaction from anybody. That is why we will file a request to the police… We will ask the law enforcers to examine and investigate all such statements,” Kucherena said.
Edward Snowden has been living in Russia where he’s been offered temporary asylum. His status makes him entitled to ask the police for help.
According to the law, temporary asylums need to be renewed. In order to make the decision, authorities take into consideration if the situation that pushed the asylee to seek protection still applies. Such statements coming from the United States are not helping matters for US authorities who continue to ask Russians to send Snowden back home.