SL refugees who sheltered Snowden now live in fear in HC

Three asylum seeker families who sheltered US whistleblower Edward Snowden in 2013 say they are living in fear because of reports that Sri Lankan police officials have been in Hong Kong trying to search for them.

“I (am) very scared, maybe they can arrest me,” said Supun Kellapatha, a Sri Lankan asylum seeker who gave up his family’s bed for Snowden. “I don’t have (a) normal life now.”

For weeks in 2013, the families took turns hiding Snowden in their cramped Hong Kong apartments, when he was trying to evade the authorities after carrying out one of the biggest intelligence thefts in US history. They kept their story secret until going public last year.

Edward Snowden’s Hong Kong lawyer, Robert Tibbo, who also represents the asylum seekers, told a news conference on Thursday that he has received information from “multiple sources” that members of the Sri Lankan Criminal Investigation Department (CID) were in Hong Kong on at least two occasions, in November and December.

Sri Lankan refugee Supun Thilina Kellapatha (L), 32, Sri Lankan refugee Ajith Puspa (2nd L), 45, and Filipino refugee Vanessa Rodel (R), 40, look on as their lawyer Robert Tibbo (2nd R) speakes at a press conference at the Legislative Council of Hong Kong on February 23, 2017.

On the second visit, Tibbo said at least two suspected Sri Lankan CID members took “active steps” to find the families, who don’t want to return home because they fear being persecuted.

He says this included approaching another member of the Sri Lankan community on the streets of Hong Kong, where they asked for some of the families by name, and carried “photographs and files” about them.

-WDEF
-Agencies