Snowden Would 'Love' to Leave Russia, But Not Without a Fair Trial

By Reuters

March 5, 2015

Former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden appears live via video during a student organized world affairs conference at the Upper Canada College private high school in Toronto. Mark Blinch / Reuters

Edward Snowden, the fugitive former U.S. spy agency contractor who leaked details of mass U.S. surveillance programs, said on Wednesday he is not being offered a fair trial if he returns to the United States.

"I would love to go back and face a fair trial, but unfortunately ... there is no fair trial available, on offer right now," he said from Russia in a live question and answer discussion organized by Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, Toronto's Ryerson University and the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

"I've been working exhaustively with the government now since I left to try to find terms of a trial," he said.

On Tuesday, his Russian lawyer had said that Snowden has been working with American and German lawyers on a way to return to the United States.

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