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French parties call for Snowden political asylum
- mikegioia 13y agoIf France were to grant Snowden political asylum, would that mean Russia is obligated via treaty to send him there? Would France have to send an escort to bring him back? Or is Snowden's fate entirely up to Putin and the Russian government at this point?
- mtgx 13y agoI think it's up to Russia now, and I don't even know how the whole no-passport thing will play out now, but I assume that if a country is willing to give him asylum, he doesn't need a passport for that (as long as the country he's leaving allows him to do so).
- cobrabyte 13y agoWould they not provide him a (provisional) passport as part of his asylum deal?
- kylelibra 13y agoIt sounds like it is all up to Putin at this point. I wonder if there is something he would want from the US in exchange.
- btilly 13y agoSnowden is in Russia, in the airport, not having gone through Russian customs and without necessary documentation to do so. My understanding is that he is technically on international ground, and legally not in Russia. He is free to hop onto any plane that lets him do so. According to Putin's latest pronouncement, he's welcome to stay in Russia only if he stops the leaks against the USA, or he's welcome to go to any country that will have him.
- dotcoma 13y agoI fear not; you need a passport to buy an international plane ticket.
- betterunix 13y agoAny country that grants him asylum would have to provide him with travel documents. It would be easy for a corrupt government to stop people from gaining asylum otherwise.
- dotcoma 13y agook, but he needs some country's ok first.
- nolok 13y agoAs a french, France (aka our executive branch) is not going to grant him asylum. If he wants it, he will have to make a formal request and have our judicial branch decide on it. Because the USA are on our "fair countries" list, the decision must be made in at most 15 days and will not be so easy to get. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_of_asylum#France https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_of_asylum#France I do believe our judicial branch to be fair, although there would be tons of pressions on them. But fair doesn't mean granting him asylum, it means judging is he indeed would be persecuted unfairly.
- jgrahamc 13y agoThree minority parties; none of the major parties.
- noplay 13y agoBut 30% of votes during the last presidential elections. And EELV have some ministres in the gouvernement.
- doe88 13y agoNevertheless, as long as it is not one of the two big parties (which is not the case yet) I don't think it is very significative and has much weight.
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- jeremymarc 13y agoStop saying French parties : it's only Jean-Luc Mélanchon and he's always doing things like that just to buzz.
- laureny 13y agoThese French leaders are being extremely naïve in making such demands, probably the reason why they are all running minority parties. France is a very close ally of the US with much more than just extradition treaty ties. If Snowden set foot on French territory, he would be sent back to the US in a matter of days.
- ernesth 13y ago> If Snowden set foot on French territory, he would be sent back to the US in a matter of days. That's false. There are a number of reasons in which France does not extradite to ally countries. For example, some italian terrorist have political asylum since 30 years (look for Marina Petrella). For example, if death penalty is possible, there will be no extradition.
- rdouble 13y agoThe US has an extradition treaty with France since 2010.
- noplay 13y agoIn the extradition treaty France can't automatically extrade someone for political reason.
- ernesth 13y agoand with Italy since much longer. Marina Petrella is still in France.
- rdouble 13y agoI assumed the terrorists and child rapist were "grandfathered in" and the extradition treaty change didn't apply to people already in the country. But you are probably right and Hollande would not extradite Snowden. Sarkozy would have sent him back, though.
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- jdangu 13y agoAll countries spy at each other, it's just that some are better at it than others. As a target country, "outing" the attacker is a natural diplomatic reaction, albeit highly hypocritical. The recent communication war between China and the US is an interesting example.
- GeneralMayhem 13y agoA couple things here: First, the "party leaders" are Melenchon and now Le Pen. Melenchon probably really believes that Snowden is doing the right thing, but his Front de Gauche (Leftist Front) is the lowest-polling of the serious parties in France, and is not very well respected outside of its core base. Le Pen is an ultra-nationalist who only wants to protect him to spite the US. The Greens are in coalition with the Parti Socialiste, but it's Hollande who's really running that show. Second, what Hollande said is completely meaningless; it's a bland, knee-jerk press release that had to be said, but everyone knows that everyone spies on each other. He has no intention of actually upsetting the status quo. Unless we hear from Hollande's lips that he wants to offer asylum to Snowden, this is non-news.