Snowden asks world’s help getting US to drop espionage charges

Edward Snowden is asking foreign governments to pressure the United States to drop its espionage charges against him.

The former NSA contractor made the request in a one-page letter to a German lawmaker whom Snowden met with in Moscow Friday, according to The Associated Press. 

Snowden said he wants to testify before Congress about the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs, according to the AP report.

He also suggested he might aid German officials in their investigation of the NSA’s spying activities in Germany, German lawmaker Hans-Christian Ströebele said at a press conference.

In the letter, Snowden said neither scenario would happen until the U.S. drops its espionage charges against him.

The U.S. government “continues to treat dissent as defection, and seeks to criminalize political speech with felony charges that provide no defense,” the letter said, according to the AP.

“I am confident that with the support of the international community, the government of the United States will abandon this harmful behavior.”

Since June, Snowden has been leaking classified U.S. government documents to journalists around the world detailing the NSA’s surveillance programs.

Russia granted Snowden temporary asylum in August, and he has since been living there at in unknown location.

On Thursday, his lawyer told a Russian news agency Snowden has been hired to do technical maintenance on a major Russian website and starts Friday. 

The attorney declined to reveal the employer because of “security reasons.”