US whistle-blower Edward Snowden has left Hong Kong and is on a commercial flight to Russia, but Moscow will not be his final destination.
The fugitive whistle-blower boarded the Moscow-bound flight earlier on Sunday and would continue on to another country, possibly Cuba then Venezuela, according to media reports.
The Hong Kong government said in a statement that Snowden had departed "on his own accord for a third country through a lawful and normal channel".
Provisions that allow for requests of "additional information" are common in many extradition treaties. Certainly its not known what was in the documents provided by the United States government and precisely how they did not comply with Hong Kong law, but it is very clear that this was the easiest way to deny extradition without explicitly refusing it. Snowden's case is a particularly challenging one, given that the U.S. chose to indict Snowden under the Espionage act. The Hong Kong government may have a strong argument that the initial documents were insufficient, even if it's unlikely that the United States will believe it. The novelty of this case makes a request for additional information perfectly legitimate, even if convenient given Snowden's subsequent departure. While the H.K.-U.S. legal cooperation may have been somewhat slighted, the HK government's decision is unlikely to affect its relationships with other states since they held to the letter and intent of the treaty and, more importantly, China did not appear to overtly intervene.
While it is impossible to know what would have happened had Snowden stayed in HK, his flight does suggest that he did not believe that his defense against extradition would have been successful. The HKSAR's hands are more tied than are Venezuela's. All things being equal, Snowden would certainly have preferred to stay in HK rather than Venezuela. However, the Hong Kong government seemed to have made it clear that it could not hold out against extradition for much longer without putting its legal arrangements into much more serious jeopardy. That China chose not to explicitly intervene at the outset does illustrate that international law does operate as a constraint, even if states can strategically use it to their advantage. Delaying extradition while offloading Snowden to a less constrained third party was an inexpensive way of satisfying the Chinese government's preference against extradition while minimizing damage to Hong Kong's international legal standing.
Translation: "I am altering the deal, pray I don't alter it any further"