MOSCOW, July 4 (RIA Novosti) – Italy and France have rejected asylum requests from fugitive former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, Western media reported Thursday.
Snowden, who leaked information about an extensive surveillance program that allegedly targeted millions on Americans, would have to be on Italian soil and present his request in person for it to be considered, Italian Foreign Minister Emma Bonino said, Reuters reported.
“As a result there do not exist the legal conditions to accept such a request, which in the government's view would not be acceptable on a political level either,” Bonino was quoted as telling his country’s parliament.
Agence France-Presse reported that the French Interior Ministry also received an asylum request from Snowden, although Minister Manuel Valls had earlier said France would not grant him asylum.
Snowden, who is believed to be holed up in the transit zone of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport, has filed more than two dozen asylum requests.
