4:28 a.m. March 23, 2005
TOKYO – Japan will release former world chess champion Bobby
Fischer, wanted in the United States, so he can go to Iceland
where he has been granted citizenship, his lawyer said on
Wednesday.
The United States – where Fischer is wanted for violating
sanctions against the former Yugoslavia by playing a chess match
there in 1992 – has said it was disappointed by Iceland's move
and reiterated that Washington wanted Fischer handed over.
Fischer, 62, will be released from detention on Thursday and
probably fly out a few hours later, his lawyer, Masako Suzuki
told Reuters.
He has been held in Japan since July, when he was arrested for
travelling on what U.S. officials said was an invalid passport.
Japanese justice ministry officials were not immediately
available to comment.
Iceland's parliament had granted Fischer citizenship on Monday,
opening the door for the fugitive American to settle in the tiny
North Atlantic republic, where he won the world title in 1972 in
a classic Cold War encounter with Soviet champion Boris Spassky,
a victory that made him something of a hero in Iceland.
"The formal procedure is finished," Iceland's ambassador to
Japan, Thordur Oskarsson, told Reuters on Wednesday.
"Mr Fischer is a true Icelander now."
Fischer has used a series of legal moves to fight deportation to
the United States, including seeking refugee status, renouncing
his U.S. citizenship and unveiling plans to marry his companion
Miyoko Watai, a four-time Japan women's chess champion.
U.S. DISAPPOINTED
Japanese officials have said it was legally possible for Fischer
to be deported to Iceland if he had citizenship there.
The United States said on Tuesday that it was disappointed at
its ally Iceland's decision to grant Fischer citizenship.
"We would like Mr. Fischer to return to the United States so
that the charges that have been filed against him can be
properly addressed through our legal system," Linda Hartley,
spokeswoman for the U.S. embassy in Iceland's capital of
Reykjavik, told Icelandic television channel RUV.
Iceland has long been a close ally of the United States, and, as
the only non-armed member of NATO, depends on Washington for its
military defence.
An aide to Icelandic Foreign Minister David Oddsson said the
country was helping Fischer because of his "historical
connection with Iceland."
Fischer disappeared after the 1992 match, in which he beat
Spassky and pocketed $3 million, and did not resurface until
after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.
In an interview with a Philippine radio station, Fischer praised
the strikes and said he wanted to see America "wiped out."
Although born to a Jewish mother, Fischer has also stirred
controversy with anti-Semitic remarks.
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