(18 Dec 2013) The head of the Brazilian Senate panel investigating US espionage in Brazil, Vanessa Grazziotin, said on Wednesday that most senators are in support of granting National Security Agency (NSA) leaker Edward Snowden asylum in the country.
"I would say the majority of them defend that he be given safe haven in Brazil or other countries of Mercosur for the rest of his life because... we see him as someone who has provided a great service," said Senator Vanessa Grazziotin.
Mercosur is a South American trade bloc whose members include Venezuela, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Brazil.
In an open letter earlier this week, Snowden said he could help Brazil dig deeper into the NSA activities, but that he would need to come to the country and be granted political asylum.
In the letter, Snowden said he could not fully participate in helping without asylum because the US "government will continue to interfere with my ability to speak".
"Until he hasn't got a stable situation and until he is worried for his own life, it's hard for him to continue to do anything or to contribute with any type of action," Grazziotin said in reference to the argument Snowden made in his letter.
Snowden also praised the Brazilian government for standing up to the US for spying on the country.
His documents showed that Brazil was a prime target of the NSA in Latin America.
After learning of NSA's spying in Brazil, president Dilma Rousseff cancelled an official visit to Washington scheduled for October that was to include a state dinner.
She's also pushing the United Nations to do more to protect citizens from spying.
Rousseff on Wednesday declined to comment on Snowden's letter.
The US wants to prosecute Snowden, who was granted temporary asylum in Russia which will expire in August.
"He feels very disappointed because even though everybody applauds him, he's having difficulty finding a country that will give him permanent asylum," Grazziotin said.
Revelations about the NSA's spy programmes were first published in the Guardian and The Washington Post newspapers in June, based on some of the thousands of documents Snowden handed over to Barton Gellman of the Post, Brazil-based American journalist Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras, a US filmmaker.
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