The former CIA employee who leaked top-secret information about U.S. surveillance programs has said in a new interview in Hong Kong that he is not attempting to hide from justice there but is using the city as a base to reveal wrongdoing.

Edward Snowden dropped out of sight after checking out of a Hong Kong hotel on Monday. The South China Morning Post newspaper said Wednesday that it was able to locate and interview him.

It said Snowden, who has been both praised and condemned for releasing documents about U.S. telephone and Internet surveillance programs, said he was “neither a traitor nor hero. I’m an American.”

Asked about his choice of Hong Kong, Snowden said “I am not here to hide from justice; I am here to reveal criminality.”

(AP)