On Sunday, the US Justice Department had called Hong Kong’s failure to arrest Snowden “troubling” and insisted Washington had fulfilled all the requirements of Washington’s extradition treaty with the autonomous Chinese region.
Hong Kong officials have said the documentation supporting the extradition request had been incomplete, but the Justice Department denied anything was missing.
“The request for the fugitive’s arrest for purposes of his extradition complied with all of the requirements of the US-Hong Kong Surrender Agreement,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
“At no point, in all of our discussions through Friday, did the authorities in Hong Kong raise any issues regarding the sufficiency of the US’s provisional arrest request,” it said.
“In light of this, we find their decision to be particularly troubling.”
The statement said senior US officials had been in touch with their Hong Kong counterparts since June 10, when they learned Snowden was in Hong Kong and leaking details of secret surveillance programs to the media.
Meanwhile, a senior administration official speaking on condition of anonymity said that Snowden’s efforts to flee prosecution belie his “claim that he is focused on supporting transparency, freedom of the press and protection of individual rights and democracy.”
The official said his choice of protectors – China, Russia, Cuba, Venezuela and Ecuador – and his failure to criticize repression and rights violations in these countries “suggests that his true motive throughout has been to injure the national security of the US, not to advance Internet freedom and free speech.”
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