LA PAZ: The US government has asked Bolivia to extradite fugitive US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden should he arrive on Bolivian soil, the country's foreign minister David Choquehuanca said Wednesday.
Bolivian President Evo Morales's plane was diverted late Tuesday to Vienna on suspicion that Snowden was on board, sparking a row between La Paz and several European countries.
"The United States sent us a note in which it asks for the extradition of its citizen Edward Snowden should he be in Bolivia," Choquehuanca told Telesur television.
The minister said he had not yet read the note in its entirety, and that La Paz would "review the entire diplomatic note before deciding."
Choquehuanca said he believed the note was no accident, as "the United States believed Snowden was on the presidential plane" with Morales.
In Washington, the State Department said it had asked that Snowden be returned from any country where he might land or attempt to transit, without naming countries.
"We've broadly asked for Mr. Snowden to be returned from any country where he may be, where he may land, where he may transit," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters.
The spokeswoman noted that the United States has an extradition treaty with Bolivia.
A State Department official confirmed that Washington still believed Snowden was in the airport in Moscow and had not left for Bolivia.
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