Snowden to seek asylum in Ecuador
The anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks said Edward Snowden “being escorted by diplomats and legal advisers from its organisation.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was granted asylum by Ecuador last year and has been staying at the country’s embassy in Britain.
Snowden travelled from Hong Kong to Moscow earlier yesterday and was booked on a flight to Cuba today, the Russian news agencies ITAR-Tass and Interfax reported.
The reports said he intended to travel from Cuba to Caracas, Venezuela. There was also speculation that he might try to reach Ecuador.
The whistleblower had been in hiding in Hong Kong for several weeks after he revealed information on the highly classified spy programmes.
The White House had no comment about the departure, which came a day after the US made a formal request for his extradition.
The Hong Kong government said in a statement Snowden left “on his own accord for a third country through a lawful and normal channel”.
It acknowledged the US extradition request, but said US documentation did not “fully comply with the legal requirements under Hong Kong law.” It said additional information was requested from Washington, but since the Hong Kong government “has yet to have sufficient information to process the request for provisional warrant of arrest, there is no legal basis to restrict Mr Snowden from leaving Hong Kong”.
The statement said Hong Kong had informed the US of Snowden’s departure. It added that it wanted more information about alleged hacking of computer systems in Hong Kong by US government agencies which Snowden had revealed.
The signal that Hong Kong let Snowden go on a technicality appears to be aimed at avoiding a drawn-out extradition battle.
Snowden’s departure came as the South China Morning Post released new allegations from Snowden that US hacking targets in China included the nation’s cellphone companies.
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