MOSCOW, July 6 (RIA Novosti) - Nicaragua and Venezuela may give political asylum to former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, media quoted the two countries’ leaders as saying.
“If circumstances permit it, we would receive Snowden with pleasure and give him asylum here in Nicaragua,” Sky News cited Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega as saying at a public event on Friday.
Venezuelan national news agency AVN reported that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro also offered asylum to the American intelligence leaker.
Snowden has sent asylum requests to over two dozen countries. Many 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 Snowden could only stay in Russia if he “stopped his work aimed at harming our US partners.”
Snowden is believed to be holed up in the transit zone of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport.
A former contractor for the US National Security Agency, he is wanted by the United States for disclosing a top-secret surveillance program that allegedly targeted millions of Americans.
