Iceland lawmakers discuss citizenship for Snowden

July 05, 2013 08:28 am | Updated June 04, 2016 12:09 pm IST - Reykjavik (Iceland)

This photo provided by The Guardian Newspaper in London shows Edward Snowden. File photo

This photo provided by The Guardian Newspaper in London shows Edward Snowden. File photo

Icelandic lawmakers have introduced a proposal in Parliament to grant immediate citizenship to National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden, who admits to revealing key details of U.S. surveillance activities.

Ogmundur Jonasson, whose liberal Left-Green Party is backing the proposal along with the Pirate Party and Brighter Future Party, put the issue before the Judicial Affairs Committee, but the idea received minimal support.

Mr. Snowden is believed to be stuck in a Moscow airport transit area, seeking asylum from more than a dozen countries.

At one point, he told the Guardian newspaper that he was inclined to seek asylum in a country that shared his values, and that “the nation that most encompasses this is Iceland.”

But to apply for asylum in Iceland, Mr. Snowden would have to reach the island nation’s soil.

Granting Mr. Snowden immediate citizenship would circumvent that issue.

The same tactic helped get eccentric chess master Bobby Fischer to Iceland from Japan in 2005 to escape U.S. prosecution for breaking sanctions imposed on the former Yugoslavia.

Mr. Jonasson argued to parliament on Thursday that Mr. Snowden “is now being chased and has nowhere to go,” according to Icelandic media.

Leaks by Mr. Snowden, a former NSA systems analyst, have revealed the NSA’s sweeping data collection of U.S. phone records and some Internet traffic, though U.S. intelligence officials have said the programmes are aimed at targeting foreigners and terrorist suspects mostly overseas.

The proposal to grant Mr. Snowden citizenship received limited support when it was discussed yesterday, the last day before summer recess.

Six members of minority parties were in favour out of Parliament’s 63 members.

Mr. Snowden has applied for asylum in Venezuela, Bolivia and 18 other countries, according to WikiLeaks, a secret spilling website that has been advising him.

Like Iceland, many European countries on the list including Austria, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Switzerland said he would have to make his request on their soil.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.