The United States has filed charges against Edward Snowden.
Snowden, who is believed to be hiding in Hong Kong, is accused of theft of government property, unauthorized disclosure of national defense information, and willful communication of classified and intelligence documents to unauthorized persons, according to the indictment dated June 14, which was unsealed yesterday.
The indictment is the first step in a process that U.S. authorities could initiate to have Snowden extradited from Hong Kong, which is part of China but has certain autonomy.
The Washington Post, which first reported the story about the indictment, writes that the U.S. has requested Hong Kong to arrest Snowden based on a provisional arrest warrant.
A few days ago, the Global Times, which is affiliated with the official publication of the Chinese Communist Party, reported that extraditing Edward Snowden to the U.S. would be a betrayal of the trust that the former CIA agent showed to democracy in Hong Kong, and that Beijing would lose face. This was the first direct stance taken in the Snowden affair.
