Bolivia: Snowden not on president's plane

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Bolivian Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca Tuesday denied the suspicions that whistleblower Edward Snowden was on the Bolivian president's plane flying out of Europe.

Edward Snowden [File photo]

Edward Snowden [File photo] 

In a televised announcement, the minister said "we don't know who invented the lie, but we want to denounce the injustice of ( diverting) President Evo Morales' plane to the international community."

The plane carrying Morales from Moscow, where he was attending a meeting of natural gas-producing nations, was forced to divert to Vienna, Austria because France and Portugal closed their airspace over the suspicions that Snowden was on the plane.

Earlier Tuesday, Bolivia's government said it had not officially received an asylum request from Snowden, but was willing to consider such a petition.

"Officially no request has arrived, but if it arrives, the president (Evo Morales) has said we will consider it," Bolivian Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera told reporters at a press conference.

WikiLeaks said in a statement Tuesday that it applied political asylum in 19 more countries for Snowden.

The countries include Russia, India, Austria, Bolivia, Brazil, Cuba, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, Norway, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Venezuela and China.

But a Kremlin spokesman said later on Tuesday Snowden withdrew the application to Russia because Moscow had said he should give up "anti-American activity".

When asked to comment on reports that Snowden has sought asylum in a number of countries including China, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Tuesday that she had read those reports, but she had no further details concerning the issue.

Brazil's Foreign Ministry Tuesday confirmed it received an asylum application from Snowden, but said it had no plans to respond.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden has been asking countries to reject Snowden asylum, as Ecuador's president recently revealed.

Previously, Snowden has sent asylum request to Iceland and Ecuador. Iceland said it is considering his asylum request. Eduador's President Rafael Correa on Sunday said his country could not consider Snowden's asylum request because he wasn't on Ecuadorian territory.

Snowden, a former contractor with the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), blew the lid off the agency's secret global surveillance program, angering Washington, which has charged him with espionage.

Snowden first fled to Hong Kong, but is now reportedly staying at a Moscow airport transit zone.

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