On Friday, former NSA contractor Edward Snowden was formally charged by the United States government with espionage, theft, and conversion of government property in a sealed criminal complaint in the Eastern District Court of Virginia. According to the Washington Post citing anonymous sources, the United States has also asked Hong Kong to detain Snowden on a "provisional arrest warrant."

Snowden, of course, famously leaked a series of documents to The Guardian and The Washington Post - and continues to do so. On Friday, the UK-based paper revealed that a British spy agency has been involved in tapping communications directly from fiber optic cables passing through the United Kingdom, based on documents Snowden provided.

Some Hong Kong legal watchers though, have wondered if Snowden's fleeing to Hong Kong was a better choice than it might seem at first blush. Apparently, the High Court in the quasi-city-state has issued an order requiring the government to create a new procedure to consider asylum applications. Until such a procedure is achieved, asylum seekers can ostensibly stay indefinitely.

"If it comes to the point where the US does issue a warrant on Snowden, and then passes it over to the Hong Kong authorities, and he decides to fight it, at this point it would be a court case," Nicholas Bequelin of Human Rights Watch told GlobalPost earlier this month. "And it can be a long court case, going up to the court of final appeals."

Lawyers who spoke to the Post concurred. "Any court battle is likely to reach Hong Kong's highest court and could last many months," noted the Post. Hong Kong also has a clause in its extradition treaty with the US which states that suspects can't be turned over for offenses with a "political character." Espionage has traditionally been treated as such an offense.

The American whistleblower has previously said he would consider seeking asylum in Iceland - and a WikiLeaks supporter there has said he has a private plane that is ready to take Snowden to Iceland. An Icelandic member of parliament told Ars earlier this month that she and others stand ready to assist Snowden, but that he has to arrive in Iceland first. Currently, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reports that Iceland currently has 68 asylum seekers.

"We haven't heard anything from him - we've tried to contact him via the journalist [Glenn Greenwald]," Birgitta Jonsdottír said in an interview with Ars. "[We've said:] 'if you want further help, please be in touch and we'll do whatever we can to help you.'"