Henrikas Mickevičius, the founder of the institute, said Snowden's alleged violation of the US law was a result of "higher principles regarding violations of human rights" and should, therefore, be defended.
"Our attitude towards the person is entirely different, we view the individual as the one who reported human rights violations, while the US administration views him as a traitor. In our opinion, it is unfair, as the man may have violated certain rules and possibly US laws, but that followed from higher principles, principles of human rights violations, he is a person who reported human rights violations, and such people are usually defended, not prosecuted," Mickevičius told BNS on Tuesday.
"The United States is a country which is seen by other states as having good human rights standards, and if this is how it treats those reporting (human rights violations), it sets a highly dangerous precedent," he added.
The Human Rights Monitoring Institute said the address was signed by "more than 120 civil society organizations defending human rights across the globe.".
"The information revealed by Snowden has triggered a long-postponed but necessary public discussion about universal electronic spying in many countries of the world. It is thanks to this individual that we learned that a large portion of our private lives in the electronic media was taken over and monitored by the administration on a regular basis," reads the report.
After fleeing the US, Snowden was granted temporary asylum in Russia. Snowden, a former US intelligence analyst, is wanted by Washington for leaking classified information about US surveillance programs.
