Ecuador has received asylum request from NSA whistleblower Snowden- FM Patino

The former CIA contractor, Edward Snowden, has asked Ecuador for political asylum, the country’s foreign minister, Ricardo Patino Aroca, wrote on Twitter.

The whistleblower is now in Moscow after fleeing Hong Kong in a bid to elude US extradition.

A car with diplomatic license plates of Ecuador is at the Moscow's Sheremetyevo airpor at the moment.

Ricardo Patiño Aroca  @RicardoPatinoEC  

 

The Government of Ecuador has received an asylum request from Edward J. #Snowden

 According to Interfax news agency, Snowden, who is accompanied by WikiLeaks representative, Sarah Harrison, has rented a suit at the airport’s «V-Express» Capsule Hotel. If he’s going to fly to Ecuador it won’t happen until Monday, June 24.  

“Mr Edward Snowden, the American whistleblower who exposed evidence of a global surveillance regime conducted by US and UK intelligence agencies, has left Hong Kong legally,” a statement by the WikiLeaks said. “He is bound for the Republic of Ecuador via a safe route for the purposes of asylum, and is being escorted by diplomats and legal advisors from WikiLeaks.”

Two cars of the embassy of Ecuador in
Moscow are parked outside the terminal
where Edward Snowden, the former contractor
for the U.S. National Security Agency, is believed
 to have landed in Moscow's
Sheremetyevo airport, June 23, 2013.(Reuters / Maxim Shemetov)

The statement added that when the whistleblower arrives in Ecuador, his asylum request “will be formally processed”.

Snowden left Hong Kong for Moscow on Sunday, despite the media claiming that his US passport has been revoked a day before.

 US State department spokesperson, Jen Psaki, said that passport revocation is "routine and consistent with US regulations" towards persons with felony arrest warrants.

"Persons wanted on felony charges, such as Mr. Snowden, should not be allowed to proceed in any further international travel, other than is necessary to return him to the US," she added.

 The Russian capital is considered a transit point en route to a third country for the former NSA contractor, who exposed a top-secret US National Security Agency’s PRISM surveillance program to the media and is now accused of espionage, theft and conversion of government property.  

 Ecuador and Iceland were initially named as Snowden’s most likely destinations. Later the news appeared that he was going to fly to Venezuela via Cuba.

6/23/2013