Edward Snowden, the man who blew the whistle on U.S. government monitoring telephone and internet data, is reported to be in hiding.
CBS News reported Tuesday the U.S. is planning to lay charges against Snowden, which would be their only way to get their hands on the 29-year-old.
Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the U.S. Senate’s intelligence chairwoman, has accused Snowden of committing an “act of treason.”
Republicans also want Snowden apprehended. “I hope we follow Mr. Snowden to the ends of the earth to bring him to justice,” Sen. Lindsey Graham said in a Twitter post Monday.
Snowden left Hawaii – where he worked for government contractor Booz Allen Hamilton – on May 20, several days before being interviewed by two Guardian reporters in a Hong Kong hotel room, where he revealed the National Security Agency’s secret metadata collection program.
The first in a series of articles appeared in the paper on June 6.
Snowden has reportedly left his hotel and his whereabouts are currently not known.
He told reporters Ewen MacAskill and Glenn Greenwald he hope to eventually seek refuge in a country such as Iceland – where he said “they stood up for people over internet freedom” – because he knows he can’t return to the U.S.
Read more: Who is NSA secret surveillance program leak Edward Snowden?
Icelandic Member of Parliament Brigitte Jonsdottir – a member of the freedom-minded Pirate Party – said she supports giving Snowden asylum. But he would have to get to Iceland first.
If the U.S. lays charges authorities could ask Interpol to arrest him on their behalf, which would make it tough for him to hop aboard a flight.
Hong Kong has had an extradition treaty with the U.S. since 1996. But it changed its regulations six months ago to consider the possibility of cruel and humiliating treatment, as well as torture, when considering extradition requests, The Associated Press reported.
Although the former British colony has been part of China since 1997, it maintains a separate legal system under the “one country, two systems” policy.
So where does that leave Snowden? Global News takes a look at some of his travel options:
Ecuador – It wouldn’t be the first time the South American nation took in someone accused of treason.
Ecuador has hosted WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in its London embassy since June 19, 2012. He’s wanted in Sweden on sexual assault charges. But he says he fears that if the United Kingdom were to extradite him to Sweden, he could be handed over to the U.S – where he may be brought to trial for publishing a slew of classified documents online. President Rafael Correa granted Assange political asylum and has fought for him to have safe passage to Ecuador.
Russia – The Kremlin, which just booted a U.S. diplomat accused of spying in May, said it would consider taking Snowden in, should he seek asylum. The Guardian reported Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said “We’ll act according to facts.”
The British newspaper pointed out that Snowden has fled a country that supports press and internet freedoms in favour of one that, in Russia’s case, is known for neither. Putin has a reputation for jailing opponents and, as the Guardian notes, Russian whistleblowers may face imprisonment, torture or even death.
It was also the country that took in French actor Gerard Depardieu and gave him Russian citizenship. Depardieu said he renounced his French citizenship because of the country’s high taxes. Other reports play the film actor’s self-imposed exile from France as avoiding allegations of tax evasion rather than an act of protest.
France – Yes, the same country Depardieu left. Movie director Roman Polanski left the U.S. for France in 1977, when he faced charges of having sex with a teenage girl. The French-Polish film maker continued to live and work freely in the country – producing movies for U.S. audiences – for much of the last 36 years. He was detained in Switzerland in 2010, when he travelled across the border to accept an award. He was back in France a short time later, where he remains today.
Yahoo News reported France won’t agree to extradite its own residents. Polanski has French citizenship. Snowden does not.
Some U.S. citizens have managed to dodge prosecution in France. Earlier this year the U.S. sought the extradition of real estate developers Michael and Linda Mastro, who were indicted for bankruptcy fraud in 2012. French authorities did arrest the couple, but let them go, citing their old age and health condition.
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