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Brazil's senate considering asylum for Snowden
Criado em 17/12/13 15h01
e atualizado em 17/12/13 20h15
Por Carolina Sarres
Fonte:Agência Brasil
Brasília – A congressional committee set up to investigate US spying on Brazil will meet Tuesday (Dec. 17) at the Senate to consider Edward Snowden's application for political asylum in Brazil. A former contractor at the US National Security Agency (NSA), Snowden has leaked documents with evidence that United States government agencies have been spying on electronic communications from presidents, businesses and nationals from various countries.
In July this year, when the issue was raised with the Senate Commission on Foreign Relations and Defense, the congressmen had unanimously supported granting Snowden asylum.
This week, Snowden sent a letter to Senator Vanessa Grazziotin, one of the rapporteurs in the investigative committee, whereby he expresses that he is willing to cooperate with the Brazilian government if given “legal conditions” to do so.
Following the earliest disclosures, the whistleblower applied to 21 countries including Brazil, but the Brazilian government declined. Under Brazil's constitution, granting political asylum is a role of the Executive, via the Ministry of Justice.
“If only Snowden were in Brazil, there's so much more he could have done to help the world understand how the NSA and its allies are breaching the privacy of people around the world, and what we can do to protect ourselves,” the campaign text read. “Brazil is the right country to welcome a whistleblower, a country whose president gave an impassioned speech at the UN [United Nations] to denounce espionage,” it went on.
Edward Snowden is currently in Russia, where he was granted temporary asylum for a one year period ending in mid-2014.
Edited by Talita Cavalcante / Nira Foster
Translated by Mayra Borges
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