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SWITZERLAND has promised that Edward Snowden would be safe from extradition to the US if he decided to give evidence in a Swiss snooping probe.
Swiss media reported today that Attorney General Michael Lauber had guaranteed the US National Security Agency whistleblower’s safety should he arrive in the country to testify.
In snappily titled preliminary report What Rules Are to Be Followed If Edward Snowden is Brought to Switzerland and then the United States Makes an Extradition Request, Mr Lauber stated that the former spy should be guaranteed safety in Switzerland.
Switzerland does not extradite US citizens if the “actions constitute a political offense, or if the request has been politically motivated,” the report said.
It concluded that Mr Snowden’s safety would be guaranteed if charges against him were of a “predominately political nature.”
Mr Snowden’s lawyer in Switzerland Marcel Bosonnet welcomed the attorney general’s conclusions.
“The legal requirements for safe conduct are met,” he said, adding that Mr Snowden had shown interest in attending.
Immigrant rights activists have gone even further, suggesting that Mr Snowden could seek asylum in Switzerland.
He is currently holed up in Russia on a three-year temporary visa and told the European Parliament in March that he wanted asylum somewhere in the European Union, but accused the US of blocking his requests.
Mr Lauber added that the only obstacle to safe passage would be “higher-level government commitments,” saying it remained to be verified if such commitments existed.
Mr Snowden is wanted by the US on charges of espionage and theft of government property after leaking to journalists huge amounts of information on the US’s shady global spying operations.
He was stationed in Geneva from 2007 to 2009 while working for the CIA investigating suspected Swiss complicity in US tax evasion.
The experience was “formative,” Mr Snowden said, recalling a time when a fellow agent successfully recruited a Swiss banker as an informent by getting him drunk and encouraging him to drive home. When he was arrested, the CIA operative offered to intervene so the banker would be in his debt.
