MOSCOW A Russian official of Amnesty International confirmed that he planned to meet Friday with Edward Snowden, the leaker of U.S. National Security Agency secrets.
Sergei Nikitin, head of the rights organization's Russia office, told The Associated Press the meeting would take place Friday, but he declined to say where.
Snowden is believed to have been stuck in the transit zone of Moscow's Sheremetyevo international airport since June 23 as he negotiates for asylum in another country.
Russian news agencies reported that Snowden had called on several human rights organizations, lawyers and Russian officials to meet with him Friday at the airport.
A Russian representative of Human Rights Watch (HRW), a New York-based organization, posted a message on her Facebook page saying she had received the alleged invitation via email on Thursday evening.
"I do not know if it's real, but my phone has been ringing non-stop for the past hour," Tatiana Lokshina said in the post, underneath which she pasted the entire message she received via email from an address with Snowden's name.
The purported message from Snowden, which even Lokshina herself acknowledged could not be authenticated, praises the Latin American nations which have extended an offer of asylum to Snowden; Nicaragua, Venezuela and Bolivia.
The writer of the message -- be it Snowden himself, someone acting on his behalf, or a complete forgery -- then goes on to accuse the U.S. government of waging an "unlawful campaign... to deny my right to seek and enjoy this asylum under Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights."
Article 14 of the international declaration states that, "everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution," but qualifies that the right "may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations."
According to Russia's Interfax news agency, Snowden also sent Invitations to representatives with Transparency International, Human Rights Watch, a Polish human rights group and the United Nations representative in Russia.
Russia's own Human Rights Commissioner, Vladimir Lukin, reportedly said he was prepared to meet Snowden, but the other organizations could not immediately be reached for comment.
According to the email invite received by HRW's Lokhshina, Snowden would give the officials attending the meeting at Sheremetyevo, "a brief statement and discussion regarding the next steps forward" regarding his travel predicament.
While the three Latin American nations have offered asylum, Guardian reporter Glenn Greenwald, who has been in contact with Snowden form months and who co-authored the British newspaper's articles based on the documents that Snowden leaked on NSA spying, told CBS Radio News on Tuesday evening that it could still take weeks for the leaker and his allies to figure out the logistics of getting him out of Moscow.
Bolivian President Evo Morales blamed European nations for bowing to U.S. "imperialism" last week by forcing his official plane to reroute during a return trip to La Paz from Moscow.
Spain said a week ago that it had been warned along with other European countries that Snowden was aboard the Bolivian presidential plane, an acknowledgement that the manhunt for the fugitive leaker had something to do with the plane's unexpected diversion to Austria.
It is still unclear whether the United States, which has told its European allies that it wants Snowden back, warned Madrid about the Bolivian president's plane. U.S. officials have not detailed their conversations with European countries, except to say that they have stated the U.S.'s general position that it wants Snowden back.
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