- Title: RUSSIA: Ecuador says it has received asylum request from Edward Snowden
- Date: 23rd June 2013
- Summary: MOSCOW, RUSSIA (JUNE 23, 2013) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF ECUADORIAN EMBASSY IN MOSCOW SIGN ON EMBASSY WALL ECUADOR FLAG ON EMBASSY WALL VARIOUS OF JOURNALISTS OUTSIDE EMBASSY
- Embargoed: 8th July 2013 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Russian Federation
- City:
- Country: Russia
- Topics: Crime,Communications
- Reuters ID: LVABJYWMFXW4ZSLAV1DOLL575I4I
- Aspect Ratio:
- Story Text: Ecuador says it has received asylum request from former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, who is believed to be in Moscow.
Hours after former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden reportedly arrived in Moscow on Sunday (June 23), Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said Snowden had asked Ecuador for asylum.
Patino did not give additional details.
WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson confirmed that Snowden had requested asylum in Ecuador. The anti-secrecy website had earlier said it helped Snowden find "political asylum in a democratic country".
Ecuador has given political asylum to the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, who has spent more than a year holed up at Ecuador's embassy in London.
An aircraft thought to be carrying Snowden landed in Moscow on Sunday after Hong Kong let the former U.S. National Security Agency contractor leave the territory, despite Washington's efforts to extradite him to face espionage charges.
According to a source at Russia's Aeroflot airline, Snowden was traveling to Moscow and was planning to go to Venezuela via Cuba. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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