EU members urged to protect Edward Snowden
Slim majority in European Parliament offers faint hope for homesick whistle-blower.
Whistle-blower Edward Snowden should be offered protection as a “human rights defender” by a European member state and freedom from extradition or rendition, a slim majority of the European Parliament has ruled.
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The ruling doesn’t bind any member state to act.
Members of the European Parliament voted 285 to 281 to call on EU member states to “drop any criminal charges against Edward Snowden, grant him protection and consequently prevent extradition or rendition by third parties, in recognition of his status as whistle-blower and international human rights defender”.
The vote was held as the parliament mulled the topic of mass surveillance of citizens.
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Snowden broadcast on Twitter he considered the ruling “a chance to move forward”.
He arrived in Hong Kong on May 20, 2013 after disappearing from his home in Hawaii as documents on NSA eavesdropping which he leaked to the Guardian became public.
Snowden has been living in exile in Russia since June 2013 and faces US charges of espionage and theft of state property which could put him in jail for 30 years.