By Li Hongmei

Edward Snowden, former CIA employee who leaked top-secret information about US surveillance programs, said in Hong Kong yesterday that he is not attempting to hide from justice in the Chinese city but hopes to use it as a base to further reveal the wrongdoings, reports China News.com.

Edward Snowden dropped out of sight after checking out of a Hong Kong hotel on Monday. It was later reported that Snowden, who has been both praised and condemned for releasing documents about US telephone and Internet surveillance programs, said he was "neither a traitor nor hero. I'm an American."

Asked by the Hong Kong media about his choice of Hong Kong to leak the information, Snowden said: "People who think I made a mistake in picking Hong Kong as a location misunderstand my intentions. I am not here to hide from justice; I am here to reveal criminality."

He was also quoted as saying that he had several opportunities to flee from Hong Kong, but that he "would rather stay and fight the United States government in the courts, because I have faith in Hong Kong's rule of law." He added: "My intention is to ask the courts and people of Hong Kong to decide my fate."

Snowden, 29, arrived in Hong Kong from his home in Hawaii on May 20, just after taking leave from his National Security Agency contracting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, which later fired him.

Questions remain about why Snowden chose to go public in Hong Kong, a Chinese special administrative region that maintains a Western-style legal system.

Hong Kong has an extradition agreement with the United States, but there are exceptions in cases of political persecution or where there are concerns over cruel or humiliating treatment.

US authorities have yet to bring charges against Snowden or file an extradition request.