EU Parliament Votes for Dropped Charges, Asylum Protection for Snowden
EU Parliament Votes for Dropped Charges, Asylum Protection for Snowden
Andrea Germanos
Common Dreams
The European Parliament passed a resolution Thursday urging its nations to afford NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden protection.
Passed by a 285 to 281 vote, the resolution calls on EU member states to "drop any criminal charges against Edward Snowden, grant him protection and consequently prevent extradition or rendition by third parties, in recognition of his status as whistle-blower and international human rights defender."
While the resolution is not binding, Wolfgang Kaleck, Snowden's lawyer in Berlin, told the Daily Dot in an email, "It is an overdue step and we urge the member States to act now to implement the resolution."
The World Wide Web Foundation, which advocates for an open Internet and was founded by Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee, called it a "landmark resolution." It added in a statement, "We call on national leaders to publicly commit to respecting the will of the European people and offering Snowden asylum."
Berners-Lee said in a Reddit Ask Me Anything session last year that Snowden "should be protected, and we should have ways of protecting people like him. Because we can try to design perfect systems of government, and they will never be perfect, and when they fail, then the whistleblower may be all that saves society."
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