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HONG KONG — The former CIA employee who revealed himself as the source of top-secret leaks about U.S. surveillance programs says he did so to reveal “criminality.”

“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,” Edward Snowden told the South China Morning Post Wednesday. “I’m neither traitor nor hero. I’m an American.”

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He also said he would fight extradition to the U.S., although the country hasn’t yet filed for one.

Snowden also said he fears for his family.

Earlier, it appeared as if he had gone into hiding since becoming the centre of the world’s biggest story.

After saying he had “no intention of hiding who I am because I know I have done nothing wrong,” Snowden checked out of his Hong Kong hotel and hadn’t been seen or heard from for days.

Snowden, in his Sunday interview with the newspaper, had said he wanted to avoid the media spotlight, noting he didn’t want “the story to be about me. I want it to be about what the U.S. government is doing.”