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Germany won’t grant Snowden asylum

BERLIN, January 27. /ITAR-TASS/. U.S. intelligence leaker Edward Snowden is unlikely to be given political asylum in Germany, a deputy German government spokeswoman said Monday.

“There is no prerequisite for granting asylum to Mr. Snowden,” Christiane Wirtz said.

“It will remain this way,” she added.

Wirtz’s comments followed an interview Snowden gave last week to a journalist working for NDR, a regional member of German public broadcaster ARD, in which the former U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) contractor claimed the NSA could have spied on other senior officials from Germany’s government rather than just on German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The United States accuses Snowden, 30, of divulging information on the NSA’s secret surveillance programs to media. Despite US extradition requests, he was granted a one-year temporary asylum in Russia in August 2013.