Edward Snowden could return to US, says his father

The fugitive intelligence contractor who leaked documents on US spying operations is being "manipulated" by people around him and would return to America if he were guaranteed a fair trial, his father said on Friday.

Edward Snowden, who released details of National Security Agency surveillance programmes before fleeing overseas, could come home if allowed to choose the location of his prosecution and was not subjected to a "gag" order, Lonnie Snowden told an interviewer. His son, 30, is still believed to be in Russia after leaving Hong Kong and booking a flight for Cuba, which he did not take.

He is thought to be accompanied by Sarah Harrison, a legal adviser for WikiLeaks, the pro-transparency group that released a vast cache of US diplomatic cables in 2010, and ex-girlfriend of its founder, Julian Assange. Lonnie Snowden told NBC News yesterday that the organisation was taking advantage of his son.

"I am concerned about those who surround him," he said. "WikiLeaks - if you look at past history - their focus isn't necessarily the Constitution of the United States. It's simply to release as much information as possible. So that alone is a concern for me."

Mr Snowden is facing charges of espionage in the US and has requested political asylum in Ecuador. He has not been seen in public since he arrived in Moscow on Sunday. Russian officials have said he remains in a transit area of Sheremetyevo airport. Moscow has declined to extradite Mr Snowden, but appears reluctant to risk a diplomatic incident by allowing him to enter the country formally.

Lonnie Snowden was poised last night to state that his son could return to America in certain circumstances in a letter sent via his lawyer to Eric Holder, the US attorney general. He conceded that he had not been in contact with his son since the weeks before his decision to leave his job as an analyst at Booz Allen, a major US defence contractor, at an NSA listening post in Hawaii, and hand a trove of documents to the Guardian and Washington Post.

Amid an ongoing dispute about the Chinese dependency's failure to approve a US extradition request before he travelled on to Russia, Hong Kong stated yesterday that Mr Snowden would not be welcome to return because his American passport had been cancelled. "Under the laws of Hong Kong, a passenger coming to Hong Kong must possess a valid travel document," the immigration department said.

US officials accuse Hong Kong of deliberately stalling when the request was made, giving Mr Snowden time to escape. Chinese officials claim that the contractor's middle name was spelled incorrectly on the US application, meaning that it had to be sent back for corrections. CY Leung, the Beijing-appointed head of government, said:

"It was not a pretext at all. We were just abiding by a very fundamental principle of procedural justice and fairness." Hong Kong officials are also demanding more information from the US on claims by Mr Snowden that he had proof that American spies had eavesdropped on communications in China.

Ecuador this week said that a trade pact with the US, which is due for renewal, had become a "new instrument of blackmail" in negotiations over Mr Snowden's fate. Senator Bob Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat who chairs the Senate foreign relations committee, said that if Ecuador granted Mr Snowden asylum, he would "make sure there is no chance for renewal" of pacts that allow the country to exploit duty-free trading with the US.

In his letter requesting asylum from Ecuador, Mr Snowden said it was "unlikely" that he would get a fair trial in American courts. Lonnie Snowden, a retired officer of the US coastguard, said he believed that the American public would forgive his son, who could face life in prison or even the death penalty if convicted under the Espionage Act.

"He has betrayed his government, but I don't believe that he's betrayed the people of the United States," he said.