Fugitive US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden was denied asylum by a host of countries today after applying for a safe haven in 21 nations spanning the globe in hopes of winning protection from American justice.
Poland immediately rejected the petitions while an Indian foreign ministry spokesman said "we have concluded that we see no reason to accede to the request." The Netherlands also said no.
And a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin said Snowden himself had decided to scrap his petition with Moscow -- where he has been stranded in an airport transit zone since June 23 -- after the Kremlin chief said he wanted him to stop releasing damaging allegations about the United States.
"He abandoned his intention and his request to receive the chance of staying in Russia," Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
The WikiLeaks anti-secrecy website that is helping the 30-year-old former National Security Agency contractor said he had sent out applications to 13 European countries as well as six Latin American nations along with China and India.
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman in Beijing said: "I've seen some reports of his petition for political asylum in some countries but I have no information about that."
Austria and Finland as well as Iceland and Norway and Spain confirmed they had received the request but argued it was legally invalid because it was not filed from inside their respective countries. Ireland too said it could not accept an asylum request brought in this way.
Italy said it was "evaluating" the request which it dubbed "irregular" because it was not made in person. And Germany said Snowden's request would be reviewed "according to the law", while France and Switzerland had not yet received the asylum application.
But leftist Bolivian President Evo Morales said today his Latin American country was willing to consider giving Snowden asylum.
"If there were a request, of course we would be willing to debate and consider the idea," Morales told Russia's state-run RT television in comments translated by the channel from Spanish.
Snowden also found support from another leftist Latin American leader Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela.
