BRASILIA (AFP) — A Brazilian senator has nominated fugitive US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, her office said yesterday.

Communist Party Senator Vanessa Grazziotin, head of a panel investigating US eavesdropping operations, says Snowden’s leaks had contributed to world peace.

In a statement released by her press service she said Snowden, currently in hiding in Russia, helped to contribute to a more “stable and peaceful world” and she had proposed him to the Nobel committee.

“We are convinced that Mr Snowden’s actions, more than those of any other individual, contributed to a more stable and peaceful future,” said Grazziotin.

“By exposing electronic eavesdropping of citizens of the world, Snowden restored the basic principle of democratic transparency,” Grazziotin said in her statement, seen by AFP.

Former Norwegian minister Baard Vegar Solhjell and Swedish sociology professor Stefan Svallfors have also, in recent months, proposed Snowden receive the peace accolade for his efforts.

The deadline for candidates closed on February 1.

Brazil was at the forefront of countries criticising US surveillance which extended to the office of President Dilma Rousseff.

Rousseff cancelled a planned October visit to the United States in protest after first denouncing the eavesdropping by an ally in a speech at the United Nations.