Snowden Reportedly In Talks To Return To US To Face Trial

HughPickens.com writes: The Globe and Mail reports that Edward Snowden's Russian lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, says the fugitive former U.S. spy agency contractor is working with American and German lawyers to return home. "I won't keep it secret that he wants to return back home. And we are doing everything possible now to solve this issue. There is a group of U.S. lawyers, there is also a group of German lawyers and I'm dealing with it on the Russian side." Kucherena added that Snowden is ready to return to the States, but on the condition that he is given a guarantee of a legal and impartial trial. The lawyer said Snowden had so far only received a guarantee from the U.S. Attorney General that he will not face the death penalty. Kucherena says Snowden is able to travel outside Russia since he has a three-year Russian residency permit, but "I suspect that as soon as he leaves Russia, he will be taken to the U.S. embassy."

Comments

Full blooded American here

[bhcompy]

...and I wouldn't trust any guarantee I received if I were in Snowden's situation. His best case scenario would be to find himself a nice country(read: not Russia) without an extradition treaty and negotiate his way there. The only way is if the president officially pardons him or he is convicted in absentia and the president commutes his sentence, but even then, they'll find something to stick on him, just like they used the IRS to take down gangsters and the mafia.

Re:Full blooded American here

[Anonymous Coward]

The US has threatened trade sanctions with countries willing to take him in. For example, the US held a tree trade treaty with Ecuador hostage over it the first time around (the revocation of which would have crippled the country). Putin was the only one who had the guts to say: "meh - do your worst". The US is playing hardball when it comes to Snowden - and people around the world are starting to notice. The whole affair has been a horrible black mark on the image of the US - both from what the NSA has done, to how the government behaved trying to get Snowden.

Re:Full blooded American here

[Anonymous Coward]

Just because there is no treaty, does not mean he cannot be extradited, just that it will be harded. About the only Countries in the World where he would be immune from American grasp are maybe Russia, North Korea, Belarus, and possibly China, and the Islamic State, but I'm pretty sure he does not want to join ISIS.

Stupid move

[Anonymous Coward]

If he think he'll get a fair trial or even humane treatment he's kidding himself. There is no such thing as a fair trial in this country, the deck is stacked in favor of the prosecution at every stage and we saw how they treated Manning. They've shown at every step of the way they are willing to ignore the law or make it up as they go while doing whatever they want. Even if Russia is becoming an authoritarian regime, it's more freedom and probably better treatment then he'll get if comes back.

Re:Bad idea

[Anonymous Coward]

Bad idea, because he's not getting a fair trial as a matter of principle. He's already branded a traitor by every gov't branch, and that kinda predetermines what'll happen when he's tried.

The only way he can go home is if the US somehow elects a conscientious president, who gives him a pardon. Which won't happen with a president from either major party.

Re:Snowden isn't coming - this is all a ruse

[Anonymous Coward]

He did not commit treason you fucking idiot. Actually read the fucking constitution which clearly defines what treason is.

Re:Bad idea

[Marginal Coward]

Easy: if rioting ensues, the trial must have been unfair - just as in Ferguson. Isn't that how the legal system is supposed to work? Who needs prosecutors, judges, and juries when you've got a very large jury of angry peers to decide them?

Re:Leverage

[Anonymous Coward]

Snowden may be using what leverage he has left. He has not yet disclosed all the information he obtained so the US government might cut a deal to avoid further disclosures.

If you believe what Snowden has previously said then no. He has already given everything he had to foreign third parties, and he no longer controls the information. Snowden could plead with them not to reveal anything more, but it is out of his hands. That is if you believe him.

Re:Bad idea

[Savage-Rabbit]

I don't know if Russia is a good place for someone like Snowden who likes to expose government corruption. Then again, maybe he'll have better luck than Boris Nemstov.

Luckily, if the Russians ever decide to jail him for exposing government corruption, he's likely to get that "fair and impartial" trial that he evidently thinks he needs a guarantee for in the US.

As long as it is only the US government's corruption, abuse of power and their ongoing rape of the US constitution that Snowden is exposing then I'm pretty sure the Russians are perfectly happy to allow him to continue and if Snowden has half a brain he will allow the Russians opposition to handle exposing the similar shenanigans of the Russian government.

Re:Bad idea

[Anonymous Coward]

You are spouting the RT party line, muddy the water so that people do not notice that a dozen of Putin's detractors have been executed and summarily covered up by the police

Re:Bad idea

[Coren22]

+1 for believing the propaganda despite all the evidence released. Sat photos are hard to fake, and sat photos of artillery/tanks entering Ukraine from Russia are pretty damning evidence.