Edward Snowden says he's offered "many times" to go to prison in the United States as part of a deal to return from exile in Russia but is still waiting for an answer from the American government.
The former National Security Agency contractor who leaked documents about top secret mass surveillance programs told the BBC in an interview he would be willing to reach a plea bargain with U.S. authorities.
"I've volunteered to go to prison with the government many times.
What I won't do is I won't serve as a deterrent to people trying to do the right thing in difficult situations," Snowden said in the interview in Moscow, where he took refuge two years ago after his revelations about the scale of the NSA's snooping activities sent shock waves around the globe.
"So far, they've said they won't torture me, which is a start, I think, but we haven't gotten much further than that," he said.