Edward Snowden, the fugitive former U.S. spy agency contractor who leaked details of the government's mass surveillance programs, said on Wednesday he is not being offered a fair trial if he returns to the United States.

"I would love to go back and face a fair trial, but unfortunately ... there is no fair trial available, on offer right now," he said in a live question and answer discussion organized by Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, Ryerson University and the CBC.

"I've been working exhaustively with the government now since I left to try to find terms of a trial."