Kerry warns of Snowden consequences

Written By Unknown on Senin, 24 Juni 2013 | 19.21

24 June 2013 Last updated at 08:09 ET

US Secretary of State John Kerry has said it would be "disappointing" if Russia and China had helped US fugitive Edward Snowden evade US attempts to extradite him from Hong Kong.

Speaking during a visit to India, Mr Kerry said there would inevitably be "consequences" to such a move.

Mr Snowden flew out of Hong Kong to Moscow on Sunday.

He was expected to be on a flight to Cuba on Monday morning, but there is reportedly no sign of him on board.

He is wanted by the US for revealing to the media details of a secret government surveillance programme, which he obtained while briefly working as an IT contractor for the National Security Agency (NSA).

The 30-year-old been charged in the US with theft of government property, unauthorised communication of national defence information and wilful communication of classified communications intelligence.

'Effect and impact'

The Hong Kong authorities have said he left the territory voluntarily, and that US extradition papers were incomplete so there was no legal reason to prevent his departure.

But Albert Ho, his lawyer in Hong Kong, told the BBC that a government official urged Mr Snowden to go over the weekend. Mr Ho said he believed the official was acting on the orders of the Beijing government.

Passenger arriving in Moscow

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Passenger on flight SU213: "It's strange, because they were getting luggage straight from the airplane and putting it into the car"

Mr Kerry told reporters in Delhi it would "be obviously disappointing if he was wilfully allowed to board an airplane".

"As a result there would be without any question some effect and impact on the relationship and consequences."

Mr Snowden's whereabouts are currently unclear - he is believed to have spent the night in a hotel at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport, and Ecuador has confirmed he has applied for political asylum there.

The US wants Russia to hand him over before he leaves Russian soil, and Mr Kerry urged Moscow to "live by the standards of the law because that's in the interests of everybody".

"In the last two years we have transferred seven prisoners to Russia that they wanted so I think reciprocity and the enforcement of the law is pretty important," he said.

Reports had suggested Mr Snowden would fly to the Cuban capital, Havana, before taking an onward to flight, possibly to Ecuador.

The first plane scheduled to fly to Havana left Sheremetyevo at 14:05 Moscow time (10:05 GMT), but journalists on board said he had not been seen.

Ecuador's Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said on Monday that Mr Snowden's asylum request was being "analysed".

Ecuador is already giving political asylum to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who has been sheltering in its London embassy for the past year.

Wikileaks is now supporting Mr Snowden and said in a statement that he was "bound for the Republic of Ecuador via a safe route for the purposes of asylum, and is being escorted by diplomats and legal advisers from Wikileaks".

Continue reading the main story
  • Age 30, grew up in North Carolina
  • Joined army reserves in 2004, discharged four months later, says the Guardian
  • First job at National Security Agency was as security guard
  • Worked on IT security at the CIA
  • Left CIA in 2009 for contract work at NSA for various firms including Booz Allen
  • Called himself Verax, Latin for "speaking the truth", in exchanges with the Washington Post

Although the US and Ecuador have a joint extradition treaty, it is not applicable to "crimes or offences of a political character".

Mr Snowden left his home in Hawaii after leaking details of his work at the NSA and US surveillance tactics to the UK's Guardian newspaper and the Washington Post.

His leaks have led to revelations that the US is systematically seizing vast amounts of phone and web data under an NSA programme known as Prism.

He has previously said had decided to speak out after observing "a continuing litany of lies" from senior officials to Congress.

Each of the charges he faces carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence.

The Obama administration is desperate to get its hands on Mr Snowden before he reveals any more secrets, says the BBC's Paul Adams in Washington.

US officials have defended the practice of gathering telephone and internet data from private users around the world.

They say Prism cannot be used to intentionally target any Americans or anyone in the US, and that it is supervised by judges.


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