Can't get a fair trial in the US, says Snowden

The former contractor at NSA reveals US govt's top-secret monitoring of phone and internet data and is in hiding in Hong Kong

The former National Security Agency contractor who revealed the government's top-secret phone and Internet surveillance programmes said in an online forum on Monday that he did not expect to get a fair trial in the US.

In a question-and-answer session with readers on the website of UK's The Guardian newspaper, Edward Snowden said his disappointment with US President Barack Obama helped spur his decision to reveal the monitoring of Americans' phone and internet data kept by big companies such as Google Inc and Facebook Inc.

Snowden, who had been working at an NSA facility as an employee of contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, travelled to Hong Kong before the surveillance programmes became public and has vowed to stay there and fight any effort to bring him back to the US.

"The US government, just as they did with other whistleblowers, immediately and predictably destroyed any possibility of a fair trial at home, openly declaring me guilty of treason and that the disclosure of secret, criminal and even unconstitutional acts is an unforgivable crime. That's not justice," he told the online forum.

The revelations by Snowden have led to a criminal investigation, and US officials promised last week to hold Snowden accountable for leaking details of the surveillance to the Guardian and the Washington Post.

He said he took care not to reveal any US operations against military targets.

"I pointed out where the NSA has hacked civilian infrastructure such as universities, hospitals and private businesses because it is dangerous," he said.