Snowden is homesick but won't return to US without fair trial, says his lawyer
PUBLISHED : Thursday, 05 March, 2015, 10:21pm
UPDATED : Thursday, 05 March, 2015, 10:21pm
Tribune News Service in Moscow
Edward Snowden's lawyer Anatoly Kucherena (right) said Snowden (left) would welcome an opportunity to defend himself publicly in an open and fair trial, but that the chances of that happening appeared to be "very slippery." Photos: AFP, Reuters
Edward Snowden's lawyer has sought to tamp down speculation that the fugitive whistle-blower could soon return to the United States.
On Tuesday, Anatoly Kucherena said his client wanted to go home and had teamed up with US and German lawyers to work on the issue.
"Some reporters must have misinterpreted what I said during my press conference and jumped to the wrong conclusion that my client was about to go home already," Kucherena said in Moscow, the following day. "This is not happening until the US government stops politicising Edward's case and offers him a fair and unbiased trial."
The 31-year-old former National Security Agency contractor, who is wanted on US charges of theft and espionage, has been living in Russia since he fled there in 2013 and was granted asylum.
"Of course Edward is often homesick," Kucherena said. "But the last thing he wants is to travel to the United States to be immediately imprisoned for an indefinite period pending trial when the government openly calls him a traitor."
He said Snowden would welcome an opportunity to defend himself publicly in an open and fair trial, but that the chances of that happening appeared to be "very slippery."
In the meantime, Kucherena said, Snowden had been enjoying working as an IT specialist at a Russian company. He received regular visits from his longtime girlfriend, Lindsey Mills, and they spent their time "fruitfully," going to museums, concerts and the theatre, he said.
Russian authorities won't stop Snowden if he decides to leave the country, according to a Foreign Ministry official. But he added given the tense relations between Russia and the US over Ukraine, "right now or the near future doesn't appear to be the right time to travel back home."
