MOSCOW, July 5 (RIA Novosti) – Fugitive former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden has sent asylum requests to six more countries, anti-secrecy organization WikiLeaks said Friday.
“Snowden has applied to another six countries for asylum. They will not be named at this time due to attempted US interference,” WikiLeaks, which has said it is assisting the former NSA contractor, wrote on its Twitter blog.
Snowden, who is believed to be holed up in the transit zone of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport, has previously filed more than two dozen asylum requests but most of them have been rejected.
Russia was one of the countries on Snowden’s original list, but he withdrew his request after President Vladimir Putin said Monday that he could only stay in Russia if he “stopped his work aimed at harming our US partners.”
Snowden has accused US President Barack Obama of “pressuring the leaders” of countries that could grant him refuge.
South American nations Bolivia and Venezuela have expressed possible support, but 11 of the 21 governments on the original WikiLeaks list have said Snowden must be on their respective territories to request political asylum, CNN reported Tuesday.
Meanwhile, three of the countries – Brazil, India and Poland – have rejected his request outright.
