National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Edward Snowden claims U.S. officials want to kill him.
During his first TV interview, which aired Sunday, Snowden told German journalist Hubert Seipel that his life is in danger.
"Government officials want to kill me," Snowden said, according to a statement released by German broadcaster ARN.
"These people, and they are government officials, have said they would love to put a bullet in my head or poison me when I come out of the supermarket, and then watch as I die in the shower."
NSA and Pentagon officials have made anonymous threats on Snowden's life.
"In a world where I would not be restricted from killing an American, I personally would go and kill him myself," a current NSA analyst told Buzzfeed.
Snowden also revealed in the interview that he felt that there were "significant threats" to his life. Snowden, however, believes that he did the right thing by informing the public.
"There are significant threats but I sleep very well," Snowden told ARD.
The 30-year-old said he believes the NSA monitored top German officials in addition to Chancellor Angela Merkel.
"What I can say is that we know that Angela Merkel was monitored by the NSA," he said. "But the question is how logical is it that she's the only one who was monitored, how likely is it that she was the German person the NSA was watching? I'd say that it's not very likely that anyone who was watching the German government was only watching Merkel and not her advisers nor other government officials nor ministers, heads of industries or even local government officials."
Snowden is currently under asylum in Russia after fleeing the U.S., where he is wanted on espionage charges for leaking data pertaining to government surveillance activities.
