The launch of the rights groups-led campaign came after the release of the Oliver Stone film “Snowden,” which his supporters hope shines a kind light on the whistleblower.
The movie’s anti-establishment director called for a pardon at the Toronto film festival last week during the screening of his espionage thriller biopic.
“We hope that Mr Obama has a stroke of lightning and he sees the way,” Stone said.
– Amnesty would be ‘lovely’ –
Sarah Harrison, a representative of the website WikiLeaks who helped Snowden flee Hong Kong and seek refuge in Russia, said although she hopes the film will help rehabilitate him, she agreed an amnesty is unlikely.
“That would be lovely if it came,” she told AFP last week. “I would be very surprised if it does.”
Snowden’s residency permit in Russia runs out next year.
“Then the question comes up again of where he can be safe. Obviously, he’d love to go back home,” said Harrison, director of the Courage Foundation, which helps Snowden and other whistle blowers.
Alternatively, “he’d really like asylum in a number of other countries, some European countries,” she added.
“Maybe the situation will have changed in some of those, but sadly so far he’s always been denied.”
