Finland Times

A  minister on Sunday viewed that his country should accept the asylum plea of US whistleblower Edward Snowden in defiance of the government’s earlier position not to take any special measures to this end.

 Paavo Arhinmäki, Minister for Cultural Affairs and chairman of the Left Alliance, made this comment in an interview with Yle.

 “Obviously the freedom of those kind of people, who disclose government abuses and unlawful activities should be protected as it is part of basic European values,” he told Yle adding that Snowden revealed wide-scale spying, surveillance and breaches of privacy.

He also support that the law should be applied equally for all and said equally means Snowden has to come Finland for submitting applications but he believed that every case should be dealt separately.

“Of course we should respect Finnish laws,” said Arhinmäki.

He viewed that Snowden should submit his application for asylum from Finnish territory.

The  Youths of the Left Alliance want Finland should provide Snowden asylum, said the party chair, adding that his organization demanded that Finland  government would reject the Free Trade Agreement with the USA , which the European Union already planned to sign.

Earlier, on July 2 the Finland government said that they would not take any special measures to Snowden’s plea for shelter after he had sought asylum in Finland along with other countries.

Interior Minister Päivi Räsänen categorically said that the Finnish government will not go beyond its Aliens Act that deals asylum applications and shelter of any foreigner in Finland. 

The minister told news agency STT following Snowden had faxed an application to the Finnish embassy in Moscow that all the applications submitted to the Finnish authority would be dealt equally. The government has decided not to take any special measure to this case, she added.

‘Finland will not help Snowden and it is our political decision,’ said the interior minister, adding that Snowden did not apply for asylum to Finland yet following due process. She also pointed out that Finland has an extradition treaty with the USA.

Venezuela, Nicaragua and Bolivia on Saturday already offered Snowden to get asylum there.

Wikileaks in its website on July 2 said that Snowden has applied for asylum to 21 more countries. The applications were handed to a Russian official at Moscow airport by the Wikileaks representative.