SAN DIEGO - Bobby Fischer has filed a federal lawsuit against
the U.S. government over what the former chess champion called
his illegal nine-month detention in Japan "under harsh
conditions, amounting to torture."
The 62-year-old Fischer, who was released from Japanese custody
Thursday and planned to take residence in Iceland, claimed he
was assaulted, battered and routinely held in solitary
confinement at an immigration detention facility outside of
Tokyo. Japanese authorities arrested Fischer in July for trying
to leave the country using an invalid U.S. passport.
"He described how he was punched, manhandled thrown around and
tackled by a group of guards," said attorney Richard J. Vattuone,
who filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in San Diego on
Wednesday.
According to the lawsuit, Fischer said Edward McKeon, the
minister counselor and consul general at the American embassy,
"directed the Japanese authorities to detain Fischer under harsh
conditions, amounting to torture, until Fischer gave up his
legal rights under international U.S. law, and complied with
U.S. demands that Fischer agree to be deported."
Lou Fintor, a U.S. State Department spokesman, did not address
the lawsuit but said Fischer remains "a fugitive from justice."
Fischer is wanted on charges of violating international
sanctions against the former Yugoslavia by playing chess against
Borris Spassky, the Russian he defeated to become world champion
in 1972.
A Justice Department spokeswoman referred questions to the U.S.
Attorney's office in San Diego, which did not immediately return
a message left seeking comment.
The lawsuit does not seek specific monetary damages but Vattuone
said he may ask for $200 million if the State Department doesn't
settle an administrative claim for damages he filed March 1 on
Fischer's behalf.
"The State Department violated its own regulations and the
Constitution," said Vattuone.
He said he has not spoken directly with Fischer in more than two
months and was allowed to meet privately with him for two
minutes during his detention.
A federal grand jury in Washington is investigating possible
criminal money-laundering charges involving Fischer. He was
reported to have received $3.5 million from the 1992 chess match
with Spassky in the former Yugoslavia and boasted at the time
that he didn't intend to pay any income tax on the money.
The lawsuit called the grand jury proceeding "a sham designed to
intimidate Fischer's attorneys and provide the media and public
with propaganda suggesting Bobby Fischer is guilty of some
crime." Two other attorneys representing Fischer have been
subpoenaed in the case, according to the complaint.
|
|
