Would like French asylum

Paris : Whistleblower Edward Snowden, living in Russia since leaking a trove of classified documents showing the scope of post-9/11 US government surveillance, wants to claim asylum in France, according to an interview published Saturday.

Recalling he had already applied for French asylum in 2013 under former president Francois Hollande, Snowden, whose memoirs "Permanent Record" are published next Tuesday, told France Inter radio he hoped President Emmanuel Macron would grant him that right.

"The saddest thing of this whole story is that the only place an American whistleblower has the chance to be heard is not in Europe but here (in Russia)," Snowden said in a trailer of the interview to be broadcast in its entirety Monday.