Posted Tue, 19 Oct 2004
US chess legend Bobby Fischer is in "great spirits" and has appointed a US
lawyer to help free him from detention at a Japanese immigration facility, his
supporters said on Monday.
"Bobby Fischer is in great spirits and he's determined to prevail," said Richard
Vattuone, a US human rights lawyer who took on Fisher's case last week, calling
his detention a "gross abuse" of government power.
The maverick 61-year-old grand chess master has been detained since his arrest
July 13 as he tried to depart from Tokyo's Narita airport.
He faces deportation to the United States where he could be imprisoned for up to
10 years for violating US sanctions against Yugoslavia by playing a 1992 match
there against Boris Spassky, for which Fischer earned $3.35-million.
Fischer's US passport has been revoked, a move his supporters say was
politically motivated. The chess champion is a virulent critic of his native
country, once calling the 9-11 attacks "wonderful news".
US State Department officials held a hearing on Friday into the passport
revocation decision and a ruling was expected to come in two to three months,
Vattuone said.
Fischer is prepared if necessary to appeal the decision on his passport and file
a US lawsuit into the constitutionality of the process, he said.
In detention, Fischer continues to carry around a chessboard and is upbeat about
his next move, said John Bosnitch, the head of the Committee to Free Bobby
Fischer.
"Bobby Fischer is, I would say, quite relaxed. Of course, like any human being,
he's extremely angry with both the Japanese and American officials who have
kidnapped him," Bosnitch told a news conference.
Last month, Fischer won an injunction from a Japanese court barring his
deportation until a court rules on his demand against sending him back to the
United States.
The chess giant is also appealing Japan's refusal to give him political asylum
and is applying for German citizenship to prevent his deportation. His father
was German.
Fischer became a hero in the United States for wresting the world chess crown
from Soviet domination during the Cold War by defeating Spassky in 1972.