Will return to US if guaranteed a fair trial, says Edward Snowden

Snowden says he wants a trial where he could make 'a public interest defense' then have jurors decide his case

Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden said on Saturday that he was willing to be extradited to the United States if the federal government could guarantee he would get a fair trial.

Speaking via Skype from Russia, Snowden said he was asking for a guarantee of a fair trial where he could make "a public interest defense" then have jurors decide his case, Associated Press reported.



Snowden was speaking to audience at the New Hampshire Liberty Forum, heavily attended by libertarians. He has previously spoken of making offers to the government to return home and even go to jail.

In 2013, Snowden had leaked details of a secret government eavesdropping program and left the country. He faces US charges that could land him in prison for up to 30 years.

Last month, it emerged that US and British intelligence agencies for years hacked into Israeli drones carrying out surveillance to prepare for a potential strike on Iran, Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot reported.

Citing documents leaked by rogue US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, Yediot said that the operation, codenamed “Anarchist”, began in 1998 at a British facility in the Troodos mountains of Cyprus and a US National Security Agency (NSA) site at Menwith Hill, in northern England.



“From the documents it emerges that Israel operates a large fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles,” the paper wrote.

“They collect intelligence in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and throughout the Middle East and were even used according to the editors (of the Snowden files) for gathering intelligence to plan the bombing of Iran.”

This article originally appeared on NDTV.