MOSCOW, July 15 (RIA Novosti) – US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, but he has no chance of winning it, WikiLeaks, an anti-secrecy group that has been assisting the former intelligence contractor, said Monday.
WikiLeaks described the prize as a “corrupt” foreign-policy instrument for the governments of Norway and Sweden.
“Overseen by Norwegian and Swedish establishments, it has become an instrument of foreign policy. With Norway in NATO and Sweden vying with Israel for closest ally slot, winners are people like Barak Obama,” WikiLeaks said on Twitter.
“That's why former winners have denounced the institution as corrupted and it is being sued for corrupting its constitution,” the group said.
Stefan Svallfors, a sociology professor at Sweden’s Umea University, had nominated Snowden for the prize earlier Monday.
A member of Russia's parliament, Alexander Sidyakin, made a similar suggestion earlier this month, though his initiative was not supported by other lawmakers.
However, Snowden is unlikely to be eligible for this year’s prize, to be announced in October, because nominations for 2013 are to be postmarked by February 1. Nominations that come after the submission deadline are usually considered the following year.
The committee has received a record 259 valid nominations for this year, the Nobel Peace Prize Committee said on its website.
Snowden, who publicized details of extensive US government surveillance programs allegedly targeting European dignitaries as well as millions of American citizens, has joined WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and leaker Army Pfc. Bradley Manning in having been formally nominated for the prize.
