Bobby Fischer supporters may sue Japan government

TOKYO - Japan has no right to detain chess grand master Bobby Fischer for immigration violations now that he has been granted an Icelandic passport and a suit will be filed against the government unless he is freed soon, his lawyer said.

The former world champion is fighting deportation from Japan to the United States, where he is wanted for violating sanctions against Yugoslavia by playing a chess match there in 1992.

He has been in custody in Japan since being arrested last July for travelling on an invalid US passport.

Iceland, where Fischer won the world title in 1972 in a classic Cold War encounter with Soviet champion Boris Spassky, has offered Fischer a home and issued him a special passport that would allow him to travel through 15 West European countries.

The passport had been held for him at the Icelandic embassy in Tokyo pending his release by Japanese authorities but was handed to his lawyer, Masako Suzuki, on Monday.

"I have requested that the Ministry of Justice allow his voluntary departure immediately," Suzuki told a news conference on Tuesday.

She said an airline ticket had been bought for Fischer and that he had formally applied for voluntary departure to Iceland.

"If we do not get the decision and permission for his departure, we will sue the Justice Ministry as soon as possible. "

Fischer's lawyers have asked for a meeting with the ministry and Suzuki said she hoped this would happen on Wednesday.

John Bosnitch, one of Fischer's supporters in Tokyo, said they were calling for him to be released no later than Friday and that arrangements had been made for protests in front of Japanese consulates around the world should this be delayed.

"We now have a very clear status in law," he added.

A Justice Ministry official, however, said there was no change in Fischer's situation despite the granting of a passport.

"None of the formal procedures needed for his departure has been carried out," the official said.

Supporters said on Monday that Fischer had been placed in solitary confinement for four days at a detention centre in Ushiku, near Tokyo, after a dispute with guards at breakfast escalated into a scuffle. Officials declined to comment.

- REUTERS