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| Fugitive US chess master Bobby Fischer has
filed a second appeal against deportation from Japan in an attempt
to avoid being sent to the United States where he could face a
lengthy jail term, his lawyer said. |
Former world chess champion Bobby Fischer, wanted by the United States for defying
sanctions on Yugoslavia, has applied for political asylum in Japan while he appeals against a
decision to deport him.
Fischer, 61, arrived in Japan in April and was detained at Narita
airport near Tokyo last month when he tried to leave for the Philippines
on a passport that U.S. officials say was invalid.
The chess master has been wanted in the United States since 1992, when
he defied U.S. economic sanctions against Yugoslavia to play a chess match
there against his old rival Boris Spassky.
Japanese immigration officials last week rejected Fischer's initial
appeal and his lawyer handed final documents for a second plea to Justice
Minister Daizo Nozawa on Monday.
A Justice Ministry official said a decision on such an appeal was
unlikely to be reached in a day or two, although the time required differs
depending on the situation.
As a fallback , in case the
appeal is rejected, Fischer has sought asylum in Japan as another line of
defense, his Japanese lawyer Masako Suzuki said.
"In almost all cases the Japanese government will not force such a
person back to their home country while the case is pending," she told
Reuters after she met Fischer, who is being held at an immigration
detention center inside the airport.
Japan accepts only political refugees. Fischer's supporters in Japan
say he is being persecuted by
the United States.
One of the great eccentrics of the chess world, Fischer maintains that
his passport was never properly revoked and that the action was taken
retroactively , his supporters
say.
"He walked into the country, got stamped in legally with a visa," said
Tokyo-based Canadian communications consultant John Bosnitch, who has been
advising Fischer.
U.S. authorities had suddenly notified Japanese
officials in June that Fischer's passport had become invalid, Bosnitch
added.
Fischer disappeared after the 1992 match, apparently traveling in
Europe and Asia, only to resurface after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on
the United States in an interview on Philippines radio in which he praised
the attacks.
Suzuki said Fischer, who has been in
custody since July 13, looked nervous and tired.
"I think he looks very tired, very fatigued. I think his condition is
not good mentally, physically."
The lawyer has filed a second request for Fischer's provisional release
after an earlier request was rejected.
The non-smoking chess master is also unhappy at being kept in a cell
where others around him smoke freely, Bosnitch said.
"He has had no fresh air, no exercise, no sunlight and (is) smoked out
all day," he said.
A former Japanese lawmaker and chess aficionado , Ichiji Ishii, has
offered to act as Fischer's guarantor if he is released while his appeal
continues, since temporary immigration detention in Japan can last up to
60 days.
A Justice Ministry official said that in cases where the minister
rejected an appeal, the individual would usually be quickly deported, but
that this would not be possible if the person sought an injunction against deportation from
a Japanese court. Ishii had said Fischer was considering such action.
Fischer became the world chess champion in 1972 when he beat Spassky of
the Soviet Union in a victory seen as a Cold War propaganda coup for the
United States.
The title was taken from him three years later after his conditions for
a match against Anatoly Karpov, also of the Soviet Union, were rejected by
chess officials.
Karpov became champion by default.
Fischer disappeared until the 1992 match against Spassky, whom he again
defeated, then vanished again until his remarks on the Sept. 11 attacks.
Fischer, whose mother was Jewish, has also stirred controversy with
anti-Semitic remarks.
（Reuters) | 
Updated: 2004-08-03 15:02