WikiLeaks - Snowden going to Ecuador to seek asylum

Posted on Sunday, 06.23.13

WikiLeaks: Snowden going to Ecuador to seek asylum
BY ASSOCIATED PRESS
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LONDON -- Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor
wanted by the United States for revealing highly classified surveillance
programs, is going to Ecuador to seek asylum, the South American
country's foreign minister and the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks said Sunday.

WikiLeaks, which says it is giving Snowden legal assistance, said in a
statement his asylum request will be formally processed once he arrives
in Ecuador. Ricardo Patino, the country's foreign minister, said on his
Twitter account that his government has received a request for asylum
from Snowden.

"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," the anti-secrecy group said on its website.

Snowden was believed to have landed in Russia on Sunday after being
allowed to leave Hong Kong.

He was on an Aeroflot flight from Hong Kong that arrived in Moscow
shortly after 5 p.m. (1300gmt) Sunday and was booked on a flight to fly
to Cuba on Monday, the Russian news agencies ITAR-Tass and Interfax
reported, citing unnamed airline officials.

Snowden did not leave Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport with the other
passengers and was not seen by a crowd of journalists waiting in the
arrivals lounge. Interfax reported that he was spending the night in the
transit zone of the airport because he did not have a visa to enter
Russia and had rented a room in a capsule hotel.

Chan reported from Hong Kong. Sylvia Hui in London, Paul Haven in
Havana, Gonzalo Solano in Quito, Ecuador, and Anne Flaherty and Julie
Pace in Washington contributed to this report.

Source: "LONDON: WikiLeaks: Snowden going to Ecuador to seek asylum -
Politics Wires - MiamiHerald.com" -
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/06/23/3466238/plane-believed-to-be-carrying.html