Iceland received informal approach over Snowden seeking asylum

Iceland has received an informal approach from an intermediary who says Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who exposed the US government’s secret surveillance programmes, wants to seek asylum there.

Snowden, the former employee of contractor Booz Allen Hamilton who worked in an NSA facility in Hawaii, made world headlines after providing details of the programme to the Guardian and Washington Post and then fleeing to Hong Kong.

In a column in Icelandic daily Frettabladid, WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson wrote that a middleman had approached him on behalf of Snowden.

“On 12 June, I received a message from Edward Snowden where he asked me to notify the Icelandic government that he wanted to seek asylum in Iceland,” said Hrafnsson, who is also an investigative journalist in Iceland.

The Icelandic government, which has refused to say whether they would grant asylum to Snowden, confirmed it had received the message from Hrafnsson.

“Kristinn Hrafnsson has contacted two ministries in an informal way but not the ministers. There has been no formal approach in this matter,” a government spokesman said.