MOSCOW, July 3 (RAPSI) - Despite initial reports that Bolivian President Evo Morales and his official airplane had been cleared to depart Vienna, where his plane was forced to land while en route from Moscow after various European countries forbade it from passing through their airspace, the plane remains grounded after Morales’ refusal to allow Spanish authorities to inspect, The Guardian reported Wednesday.

In the latest diplomatic outburst to emerge from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden’s flight from the US justice system, Morales’ presidential airplane was diverted to Vienna after France and Portugal reportedly refused to permit its flight path to route through their airspace. It was later reported that Italy and Spain had closed their airspace to the plane as well.

The Guardian quoted Bolivian Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca as having expressed suspicion with regard to the countries’ reason for doing so: "They say it was due to technical issues, but after getting explanations from some authorities we found that there appeared to be some unfounded suspicions that Mr Snowden was on the plane." Bolivian Vice President Alvaro Garcia then reportedly described the episode in terms of Morales having been “kidnapped by imperialism.”

Austrian officials reportedly denied that Snowden was on the plane, after which point Tanja Malle, a journalist on the ground, tweeted, “Austrian officials can not claim truthfully [Snowden] is not on [Morales’] plane, for crew says, no one was allowed to enter it.”

Austrian President Heinz Fischer then reportedly stated, “The flight route is normal, as far as I am informed. Spain's airspace is also open for him. (Morales) will resume his trip shortly,” as quoted by The Guardian.

Shortly thereafter, Malle tweeted that another press conference had revealed that Spain was still blocking the plane’s flight path. The Guardian then reported, citing Reuters, that Morales said that he had refused to permit Spanish authorities to inspect his plane and had been refused permission to fly over Spain.

Snowden has reportedly been holed up in the transit area of Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport waiting for several days awaiting responses to a long list of asylum requests he reportedly filed with the assistance of Wikileaks, which announced Tuesday that Snowden had submitted requests for asylum and asylum assistance to 21 countries, including: Austria, Bolivia, Brazil, China, Cuba, Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, Norway, Poland, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, and Venezuela. He had already filed such paperwork for Iceland and Ecuador, bringing the total to 21.

The 30-year-old whistleblower dominated international headlines this month after claiming responsibility for leaking top secret documents to The Guardian, detailing the National Security Agency's (NSA) capacity to access the systems of major US companies such as Google, Facebook, and Apple. Google, Facebook, and Apple have all denied providing direct or backdoor access to their servers.

After the initial leak, Snowden went on to expose various other types of intelligence, including claims to The Guardian that the NSA had intercepted communications from Medvedev's delegation during the 2009 G20 summit in London, as well as claims during an interview with the South China Morning Post that the United States had been hacking into Chinese computers for years.

On June 14, the US authorities filed a criminal complaint advancing three charges, each carrying a punishment of up to 10 years in prison. He has been charged with theft of government property, unauthorized communication of national defense information, and the willful communication of classified communications intelligence information to an unauthorized person, according to a criminal complaint filed by federal prosecutors.