Czech Pirate Party says Czech Republic should offer Snowden asylum

The Czech Pirate Party has asked the Czech Interior Ministry to offer political asylum to American whistleblower Edward Snowden who leaked details of the U.S. Prism mass surveillance programme to the press. The party sent the outgoing Interior Minister Jan Kubice an open letter asking the ministry to publicly condemn the U.S. surveillance practices and assure the public that the Czech intelligence services are not involved in similar surveillance programmes.

Snowden, a former CIA contractor, confessed that he had revealed details of the top-secret Prism programme of the US government, including the monitoring of Internet and phone communication, to the media. The U.S. State Department has accused him of espionage and theft of official documents. Snowden is presently in a transit area of the Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow and has applied for political asylum in over 20 countries.