Swedish MPs meet Snowden in Moscow

The visit was organised by the Right Livelihood Award Foundation, a Stockholm-based organisation that honoured Snowden with a human rights prize in September 2014.

"We discussed his journey and he gave us a nuanced account of how mass surveillance works and what doesn't work," MP Jakop Dalunde of the Green Party told public broadcaster SVT. “He also gave us his point of view on what constitutes effective anti-terrorism measures and what doesn't.”

“I am impressed by his courage,” he added.

Dalunde was joined at the meeting by Liberal Party MP Matthias Sundin and Cecilia Magnusson of the conservative Moderate Party.

“Some think he committed treason against his country,” said Magnusson. “I think he should go before a court but it should be an open trial. Now he’s being accused according to a law from 1917.”

In the aftermath of the Snowden revelations, it was revealed that several countries, among them Sweden, were involved.

“That’s not something I’m proud of,” said Magnusson.

The meeting between Snowden and the MPs lasted two hours.

Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor, has lived in exile in Russia since 2013 after revealing the unprecedented extent of US state surveillance.