BERLIN
The German Parliament’s special committee investigating alleged US' National Security Agency spying in Germany is considering meeting NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden in Moscow.
Deputies from German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative-social democrat coalition government announced on Thursday that they were willing to meet the ex-NSA contractor before the summer break of the parliament.
Christian Flisek, social democrat deputy and member of the NSA investigation committee, told journalists that they were willing to hold “an informal meeting” with Snowden to discuss options for him to testify before the committee.
The opposition parties - the Greens and Die Linke - have opposed the proposal and asked from the government to clarify the legal conditions for inviting Snowden to Germany to testify before the committee.
Opposition parties have long supported granting political asylum to Snowden, but such a move is disputed by Chancellor Merkel’s government which claims that it lacks any legal basis.
Concrete evidence
Snowden faces the risk of being detained and extradited to the United States if he travels to Germany, due to security agreements with the US.
Snowden’s revelations in 2013 highlighted that the NSA had spied on various high-level politicians in Germany, including Merkel, and he claimed the NSA had collected about half a billion communications connections each month from Germany.
German Federal Parliament’s special committee of inquiry is willing to hear Snowden with the hope of getting concrete evidence and more information and about the NSA’s alleged activities in Germany.
But Snowden’s lawyers have warned he might not be in a position to testify in Moscow, as it could undermine his legal status there.
In August last year, Snowden received temporary asylum from Russia for a year on the condition that he would not harm the US with further leaks.
aa.com.tr/en
