(MENAFN- Qatar News Agency) Moscow August 08 (QNA) - The Russian government will allow Edward Snowden the former US National Security Agency contractor who leaked details of the agency's worldwide surveillance programs to stay in the country for three more years. The term of his staying in Russia under the temporary asylum status expired on August 1 but he filed documents for extending the term beforehand Russia's Itar tass news agency reported. US prosecutors accuse the 31-year-old of leaking information on US National Security Agency (NSA) secret surveillance programmes to media organizations. Despite US extradition requests he was granted one-year temporary asylum in Russia last year after spending more than a month in the transit zone of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport. American authorities say Snowden violated two clauses of a law on espionage by divulging secret data related to national defense and by deliberately transferring U.S. intelligence data to unauthorized individuals. He is also charged with stealing US government property. On home ground he faces 10 years in prison on each charge. (QNA)
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