Snowden appeals extradition lawsuit at Norwegian supreme court: report

Edward Snowden speaks via video link during a news conference in New York City, US September 14, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

OSLO - Fugitive US whistleblower Edward Snowden is appealing to the Norwegian supreme court so as to get a guarantee he would not be extradited to the United States from Norway, newspaper VG reported on Tuesday.

This comes after earlier rejections by the district court and court of appeal as Snowden tried to secure a safe passage to Norway without the risk of being extradited.

Snowden filed the lawsuit against the Norwegian government at the Oslo District Court in April via a local law firm after the Norwegian PEN organization awarded him the Ossietzky Prize for 2016 and invited him to receive the award in Oslo on Nov 18.

The Norwegian PEN now has decided to postpone the ceremony to June 7, 2017.

Snowden, the Norwegian PEN and some media organizations think Norwegian courts can decide in advance that Snowden would not be arrested and extradited from Norway, VG reported. The courts, however, claim that they cannot process the case.

William Nygaard, leader of the Norwegian PEN, told VG that the Supreme Court case will "take time."

"After consultation with our lawyers, we have decided to postpone the award ceremony, which should happen in the presence of Edward Showden personally," he said.

On Sept 28, the Court of Appeal supported the Oslo District Court decision in June, saying that the courts' conclusion is that they have no factual expertise to process in advance Snowden's questions regarding a civil case.

The Oslo District Court wrote in its rejection in June that a pre-trial could undermine the international cooperation in criminal matters that that extradition act is based on.

The court expressed that it was "impossible to decide whether an extradition to the United States would be against the law, prior to the existence of a request from the US authorities."

Snowden faces three felony charges in the United States, including espionage, after he disclosed a classified U.S. intelligence project code-named PRISM in June 2013.