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No pardon for NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, says US government

The former National Security Agency employee is still facing charges in the US after leaking classified information in 2013

* Hardeep Matharu 

* @Hardeep_Matharu 

* Thursday 30 July 2015

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Edward Snowden, who leaked classified information from the US intelligence services in 2013, is living in Russia Reuters

A petition calling for American intelligence whistleblower Edward Snowden to be pardoned has been rejected by the US government – two years after it was started.

More than 167,000 people signed the petition – calling for Mr Snowden to be “immediately issued with a full, free, and absolute pardon” – on the government’s official petitions website, We the People.

But the US government said it would not be acting on it and instead urged Mr Snowden to return to America and be "judged by a jury of his peers".

Classified information revealing the extensive use of internet and phone surveillance by US intelligence services was leaked by the former National Security Agency and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) employee in 2013, and then published in national newspapers in the UK and America.

In June that year, the US government charged Mr Snowden with theft of government property, unauthorised communication of national defence information and wilful communication of classified communications intelligence

Each charge carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence.

He left Hawaii, where he was living with his girlfriend at the time, and flew to Hong Kong, before travelling to Moscow.

Mr Snowden continues to reside in Russia, which does not have an extradition treaty with the US.

The US government is required to respond to petitions which receive more than 100,000 signatures. 

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