ACLU and Amnesty International are asking Obama to pardon Edward Snowden

(Handout)

The American Civil Liberties and Amnesty International, two of the largest human rights organizations in the US, are calling on President Barack Obama to pardon NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Both organizations, along with the Human Rights Campaign and a host of others, are planning to announce the “Pardon Snowden” campaign on Wednesday coinciding with the release of Oliver Stone’s biopic.

"I think Oliver will do more for Snowden in two hours than his lawyers have been able to do in three years," Ben Wizner, Mr Snowden's lawyer and director of the ACLU's Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, told Motherboard at the film’s premiere last week.

At Wednesday's press conference, Mr Snowden will speak via video link from Moscow where he's been confined since the leak.

While Mr Obama has commuted the sentences of more prisoners than any other president, he’s only granted 70 presidential pardons since his time in office, according to Department of Justice statistics.

“Unless the government is willing to consider charging him with something appropriate, there's not going to be a trial if we have anything to say about it. That doesn't mean there couldn't be some other kind of agreement,” Wizner told the outlet. “We think the proper response to Edward Snowden shouldn't be what the punishment should be, it should be how to thank him. And until that's the case, he is living safely where he is.”