French parties call for Snowden political asylum | Hacker News Reader

French parties call for Snowden political asylum

france24.com

98 pointsNonEUCitizen25 comments

If France were to grant Snowden political asylum, would that mean Russia is obligated via treaty to send him there? Would France have to send an escort to bring him back? Or is Snowden's fate entirely up to Putin and the Russian government at this point?

I think it's up to Russia now, and I don't even know how the whole no-passport thing will play out now, but I assume that if a country is willing to give him asylum, he doesn't need a passport for that (as long as the country he's leaving allows him to do so).

Would they not provide him a (provisional) passport as part of his asylum deal?

It sounds like it is all up to Putin at this point. I wonder if there is something he would want from the US in exchange.

Snowden is in Russia, in the airport, not having gone through Russian customs and without necessary documentation to do so.

My understanding is that he is technically on international ground, and legally not in Russia. He is free to hop onto any plane that lets him do so.

According to Putin's latest pronouncement, he's welcome to stay in Russia only if he stops the leaks against the USA, or he's welcome to go to any country that will have him.

I fear not; you need a passport to buy an international plane ticket.

Any country that grants him asylum would have to provide him with travel documents. It would be easy for a corrupt government to stop people from gaining asylum otherwise.

ok, but he needs some country's ok first.

As a french, France (aka our executive branch) is not going to grant him asylum. If he wants it, he will have to make a formal request and have our judicial branch decide on it. Because the USA are on our "fair countries" list, the decision must be made in at most 15 days and will not be so easy to get.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_of_asylum#France

I do believe our judicial branch to be fair, although there would be tons of pressions on them. But fair doesn't mean granting him asylum, it means judging is he indeed would be persecuted unfairly.

These French leaders are being extremely naïve in making such demands, probably the reason why they are all running minority parties.

France is a very close ally of the US with much more than just extradition treaty ties. If Snowden set foot on French territory, he would be sent back to the US in a matter of days.

> If Snowden set foot on French territory, he would be sent back to the US in a matter of days.

That's false. There are a number of reasons in which France does not extradite to ally countries. For example, some italian terrorist have political asylum since 30 years (look for Marina Petrella). For example, if death penalty is possible, there will be no extradition.

The US has an extradition treaty with France since 2010.

and with Italy since much longer. Marina Petrella is still in France.

I assumed the terrorists and child rapist were "grandfathered in" and the extradition treaty change didn't apply to people already in the country. But you are probably right and Hollande would not extradite Snowden. Sarkozy would have sent him back, though.

In the extradition treaty France can't automatically extrade someone for political reason.

I looked it up and it appears that Marina Petrella was protected under the Mitterand Doctrine [1], which was a sort of witness protection program. I doubt this would apply to Snowden.

[1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitterrand_doctrine

France have a long tradition of political asylum. If Snowden put a foot on French territory it will be complicate for government to extrad it without an internal crisis.

>France is a very close ally of the US with much more than just extradition treaty ties. If Snowden set foot on French territory, he would be sent back to the US in a matter of days.

France also has a history of sheltering people from extradition to the US (just ask Roman Polanski).

> France also has a history of sheltering people from extradition to the US (just ask Roman Polanski).

No, he was able to stay in France because he's a French citizen, nothing to do with extradition.

Swiss, on the other hand, did refuse to extradite him and then let him go free.

Three minority parties; none of the major parties.

But 30% of votes during the last presidential elections. And EELV have some ministres in the gouvernement.

Nevertheless, as long as it is not one of the two big parties (which is not the case yet) I don't think it is very significative and has much weight.

A couple things here:

First, the "party leaders" are Melenchon and now Le Pen. Melenchon probably really believes that Snowden is doing the right thing, but his Front de Gauche (Leftist Front) is the lowest-polling of the serious parties in France, and is not very well respected outside of its core base. Le Pen is an ultra-nationalist who only wants to protect him to spite the US. The Greens are in coalition with the Parti Socialiste, but it's Hollande who's really running that show.

Second, what Hollande said is completely meaningless; it's a bland, knee-jerk press release that had to be said, but everyone knows that everyone spies on each other. He has no intention of actually upsetting the status quo.

Unless we hear from Hollande's lips that he wants to offer asylum to Snowden, this is non-news.

All countries spy at each other, it's just that some are better at it than others. As a target country, "outing" the attacker is a natural diplomatic reaction, albeit highly hypocritical. The recent communication war between China and the US is an interesting example.

Stop saying French parties : it's only Jean-Luc Mélanchon and he's always doing things like that just to buzz.

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