After eight months detained in Japan awaiting deportation to the United States, the former world chess champion Bobby Fischer may soon be free, his supporters claimed on Tuesday.
Fischer (62) on Tuesday, was held last July when trying to leave Japan for the Philippines on an invalid passport which had been revoked by the US.
He fought attempts to deport him to the US, where he is wanted for violating United Nations sanctions against the former Yugoslavia by playing a chess match there against Boris Spassky in 1992.
Fischer’s options, including a request for asylum in a third country, appeared to be running out when Iceland gave him a residence permit in December. It has now issued him a special passport valid for 15 western European countries. Supporters have bought him a plane ticket to Reykjavik.
Fischer’s classic Cold War victory against Spassky in Reykjavik in 1972 earned him the world title.
His lawyer said there were no legal grounds for Japan to continue holding him, and John Bosnitch, head of the Tokyo-based Committee to Free Bobby Fischer, said protesters would demonstrate outside Japanese embassies unless Tokyo agreed to the request by Friday. – Guardian Unlimited Â