Snowden has ‘desire to return’ home

Government leaker Edward Snowden still wants to come home.

After nearly two years on the run from U.S. authorities — first in Hong Kong and, since August of 2013, in Russia — the government leaker still says he would like to return to his home country, according to a lawyer.

{mosads}”Snowden is ready to return to the States, but on the condition that he is given a guarantee of a legal and impartial trial,” Russian lawyer Anatoly Kucherena said at a news conference, according to multiple reports.

“He is thinking about it,” Kucherena added. “He has a desire to return, and we are doing everything we can to make it happen.”

Snowden is wanted on multiple espionage charges in the U.S. that could land him in prison for decades. Due to the nature of the charges, supporters have feared that he would not stand a fair trial and wouldn’t be able to adequately make his case from the witness stand, even if he did come home to face the music.

He has long expressed a desire to come back to the U.S., but lawyers have repeated that he will only do so if he can be assured that he won’t be returning in handcuffs. 

Practically since he left the U.S., lawyers have been working on negotiating the terms of that return, but little progress appears to have been made so far. His supporters have also looked for other countries willing to host him, but they have yet to step up.

For the time being, Snowden is staying in Russia on a temporary asylum order that was renewed last year.