Immigration lawyer on conditions of Snowden's temporary asylum

(2 Aug 2013)
AP TELEVISON
1. Wide of street
2. Mid of street
3. Wide of Bakhrom Ismailov, lawyer, takes a look at different pictures of Snowden
4. Mid of computer screen
5. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Bakhrom Ismailov, immigration lawyer:
"With this document he has the right to live in a territory specified within the document. He has the right to work. A temporary asylum certificate is a form of document that is given before granting him political or refugee asylum."
6. Close of Edward Snowden's temporary asylum certificate on a computer screen
7. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Bakhrom Ismailov, immigration lawyer:
"The law allows the possibility of visits abroad for foreigners using a temporary asylum certificate. But, regardless of the law, in practice that will be hard to do because, for example, going to Schengen Agreement countries requires a national passport. So in practice it will be very hard for him to go abroad, he will only be able to travel within Russia."
8. Wide of street
STORYLINE:
A Russian immigration lawyer said on Friday that National Security Agency (NSA) leaker Edward Snowden's newly gained temporary asylum status allowed him to work in Russia, but with some restrictions.
"He has the right to live in a territory specified within the document," said Bakhrom Ismailov, a Russian immigration lawyer:
"He has the right to work. A temporary asylum certificate is a form of document that is given before granting him political or refugee asylum."
Russia granted a year of asylum to Snowden on Thursday, allowing him to quietly slip out of the Moscow airport where he had been holed up for almost six weeks as he evades charges of espionage in the United States.
Snowden "is in a safe place," but the location will remain secret out of concerns for his security, his lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, told Russian news agencies on Friday.
Kucherena said Snowden, an NSA systems analyst who revealed himself as the source of reports in The Guardian newspaper of a vast surveillance program by the National Security Agency, needs time after his ordeal at the airport to figure out what to do next.
"The law allows the possibility of visits abroad for foreigners using a temporary asylum certificate. But, regardless of the law, in practice that will be hard to do," said Ismailov.
"Because, for example, going to Schengen Agreement countries requires a national passport. So in practice it will be very hard for him to go abroad, he will only be able to travel within Russia."
Venezuela, Nicaragua and Bolivia had offered Snowden asylum and he told human rights officials during a meeting in mid-July that he wanted to visit all those countries.
But Kucherena said on Thursday that Snowden no longer has such plans.

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