(Image: Reuters)
Published on Friday, December 6, 2013 by Common Dreams
Following resolution by Green Party, Snowden to give testimony to European Parliament on NSA mass surveilance
Edward Snowden, the NSA whistleblower indicted by the United States government, is slated to testify by video to the European Parliament later this month about the mass surveillance of EU citizens.
Jan Philipp Albrecht, German member of the European Parliament, announced Thursday that Snowden will present to the Committee on Legal Affairs possibly as early as December 18, Deutche Welle reports.
Snowden's statement, and his responses to questions provided in advance, will be pre-recorded and shown by video, due to the danger that a live stream could reveal his location, EU Observer reports.
The Green Party of the European Parliament passed a resolution in July calling for Snowden to testify about NSA spying.
"It's a great success for the European parliament that Edward Snowden has already agreed to testify publicly as a key witness in the surveillance scandal," stated Albrecht. "Half a year after the first publications from his collection of numerous NSA documents, the truth of which has not so far been refuted, there are still consequences as far as political responsibility is concerned."
The surveillance scandal has ricocheted across Europe and the world, following revelations exposed by Snowden that the U.S. has spied on European allies, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel's telephone.
Yet, NSA documents exposed by Snowden and reported by German paper Der Spiegel also reveal that Germany has been a willing partner in NSA spying.
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