Brazil does not intend to grant National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden asylum, several unidentified government officials told a newspaper in Sao Paulo.
Snowden wrote a letter to Brazilian authorities, reports said Monday, in which he said he could assist its government with investigations into the NSA. In return, he said he’d want asylum in Brazil.
The letter was published Monday in Brazilian newspaper Folha De S. Paulo.
{mosads}A presidential aide told the paper that Brazil is not interested in satisfying Snowden’s request.
Brazil “has no interest in doing this kind of interference in the sovereignty of other countries,” and “it will not do to them what they did to us,” the aide said.
A Brazilian conservative senator also told the newspaper it doesn’t make sense to grant Snowden asylum.
Snowden has not submitted a formal asylum request, however, Brazil says. President Dilma Rousseff has not officially commented on the matter.
“Until a country grants permanent political asylum, the US government will continue to interfere with my ability to speak,” Snowden wrote in the letter.
Snowden has been living in Russia since August, which is when its government granted him temporary asylum.
Former reporter for The Guardian, Glenn Greenwald, said he would lobby the Brazilian government to grant Snowden’s request. Greenwald lives there and was the first journalist to obtain highly classified U.S. documents from Snowden as the leaks began in June.
Snowden faces espionage charges in the U.S., and the White House played down rumors Monday that the Obama administration was considering offering Snowden amnesty.
“Mr. Snowden has been accused of leaking classified information, and he faces felony charges here in the United States,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said.