Edward Snowden faces Hong Kong arrest after US spying charges
Edward Snowden faces imminent arrest if he remains in Hong Kong, after the United States began what is likely to be a lengthy battle to extradite him over leaks on classified surveillance programmes.
By Malcolm Moore, Hong Kong,12:35PM BST 22 Jun 2013, Source
Hong Kong’s police commissioner, Andy Tsang, indicated that the normal legal process would be followed after the United States filed criminal charges against Mr Snowden and requested his arrest.
“All foreign citizens must comply with Hong Kong’s law,” he told a press conference, adding that the police would act on the request once it is received.
He declined to comment on the intriguing possibility, raised by one Hong Kong newspaper, that Mr Snowden is already in a police safe house.
The Apple Daily claimed that Mr Snowden, who has become a political hot potato between the US and China, is under protection but has not so far been asked to reveal his trove of intelligence data.
Mr Snowden, a 29-year-old former CIA employee and contractor for the National Security Agency, flew to Hong Kong before leaking detailed evidence of the scale of US hacking and cybersurveillance programmes.
On Friday, the US revealed that it had charged him with three crimes on June 14: the theft of government property, the unauthorised communication of national defence information and the wilful communication of classified communications intelligence information to an unauthorised person.
The final two offences fall under the US Espionage act and carry penalties of up to ten years in prison.
The US and Hong Kong have had an extradition treaty since 1998 and US officials have described Hong Kong as extremely cooperative in complying with American requests.
Hong Kong now has to decide whether to charge Mr Snowden with equivalent crimes under its own laws and issue its own arrest warrant for him, said Simon Young, the director of the Centre for Comparative and Public Law at Hong Kong university.
The decision on whether to proceed will be made by CY Leung, Hong Kong’s chief executive, but Prof Young said it was likely that a provisional warrant had already been drawn up.
“I suspect, though I do not know for sure, that a provisional arrest warrant has already been issued by a Hong Kong magistrate […] on the basis that the person is known to be in Hong Kong and that he is wanted for charges that might be the subject of surrender,” he said.
