Snowden Wants To Return To US, Face Trial If Jurors Allowed To Hear Defense In Open Court

Umer Jamshaid Published September 16, 2019 | 09:19 PM

Edward Snowden wants to face trial in the United States if the US government allows a public proceeding where his defense includes evidence that the National Security Agency broke US law with the massive collection of email, phone and internet records of millions of Americans, the whistleblower said in an interview on Monday

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 16th September, 2019) Edward Snowden wants to face trial in the United States if the US government allows a public proceeding where his defense includes evidence that the National Security Agency broke US law with the massive collection of email, phone and internet records of millions of Americans, the whistleblower said in an interview on Monday.

"I would like to return to the United States," Snowden told CBS news. "If I'm going to spend the rest of my life in prison, the one bottom line demand we all have to agree to is that at least I get a fair trial and that is the one thing that the government has refused to guarantee because they won't provide access to what's called a public interest defense."

Snowden said the US government wants a trial that is closed to the public with the verdict based on a narrow question of whether or not he broke the law and one in which a jury is not allowed to consider the motivations of his actions.

"They want the jury to consider whether these actions were lawful of unlawful, not whether they were right and I'm sorry but that defeats the purpose of a jury," Snowden said.

In 2013, Snowden leaked classified documents pertaining to mass surveillance practices carried out by the National Security Agency on all US citizens. US law explicitly prohibits spying on US citizens and residents without a court order.

The US government revoked Snowden's passport while he was transiting Moscow en route to another country. Russia subsequently granted Snowden political asylum.

As a result of Snowden's revelations, the US Congress passed the Freedom Act in 2015, significantly curbing the mass collection of data.