Former National Security Agency contractor and leaker Edward Snowden is working to return home to the United States, his lawyer said Tuesday.
"Of course I will not keep it secret, that he is considering and wants to return home," Russian lawyer Anatoly Kucherena said at a news conference in Moscow where he presented a book he has written about Snowden. "We are doing everything possible now to solve this issue."
The lawyer added that there was also a group of American and German lawyers working on Snowden’s eventual return to America.
"Edward is motivated in his actions, first of all, by his desire to open the eyes not only of Americans, but of people in the rest of the world, to a total violation of human rights," Kucherena said at the news conference, adding that he thinks Snowden's future "will be bright."
Snowden, who was born in North Carolina, was granted residency in Russia for three more years as of last August, but has not been granted political asylum, which would allow him to live in Russia permanently.
Snowden was charged with espionage after leaking classified information regarding the NSA's extensive surveillance programs beginning in June 2013 and has been living in Russia since that August. The United States has sought Snowden's extradition to stand trial, but Russia has so far refused. Snowden has said in the past he would return to America, but only if he believed he would actually receive a fair trial.
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