Finland Times

The authorities have said that they would not take any special measures to US whistleblower Edward Snowden’s plea for shelter after he had sought asylum in Finland along with 19 other countries.

Interior Minister Päivi Räsänen categorically said on Tuesday 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 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.

Minister of the Interior Päivi Räsänen. Photo - Lehtikuva.

‘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 but he admitted that Snowden sent a fax message to Finnish embassy in Moscow.

In the letter, Snowden just sought a safe place, she said.

‘Although the Interior minister is entitled to exercise special powers under such circumstances, Finland will treat all applications that sought asylum equally,’ she said.

Finland has an extradition treaty with the USA.

Following the faxed message, the interior ministry said that asylum applications may only be submitted in Finland.

‘According to the Aliens Act, an asylum application must be submitted in Finland. The application cannot be made abroad, it must be submitted in person to the police or the Finnish Border Guard,’ said an official press release.

It added some EU Member States have previously permitted an asylum application to be submitted in one of their embassies abroad, but this practice has been discontinued.

Finland too receives contacts from abroad from time to time, asking for international protection. Such communication usually arrives by letter or email directly to the Ministry of the Interior or through an embassy or the Ministry for Foreign Affairs  but the authority does not deal with such applications, said the release.

 Wikileaks in its website on Tuesday 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.

The applications were submitted to Austria, Bolivia, Brazil, China, Cuba, Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy, Ireland, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Norway, Poland, Russia, Spain, Switzerland and Venezuela, said the website, adding that he has already sought asylum in Iceland and Ecuador.

‘One week ago I left Hong Kong after it became clear that my freedom and safety were under threat for revealing the truth. My continued liberty has been owed to the efforts of friends new and old, family, and others who I have never met and probably never will. I trusted them with my life and they returned that trust with a faith in me for which I will always be thankful,’ said Snowden on the website.

President Obama declared last week that he would not permit any diplomatic “wheeling and dealing” over Snowden’s case. “Yet now it is being reported that after promising not to do so, the President ordered his Vice President to pressure the leaders of nations from which I have requested protection to deny my asylum petitions,” he said.

‘I am unbowed in my convictions and impressed at the efforts taken by so many,’ said Snowden.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who is now in Ecuador embassy in London is helping Snowden get a safe place and Snowden first went to Hong Kong and left for Russia where he is still looking for a third secured destination.
Snowden left USA since his resignation from the responsibility as a contractor for the National Security Agency in Hawaii and leaked highly confidential information to number of news media last month. The USA accused him of espionage and asked other countries not to help him giving shelter