Fischer seeks asylum
AFP, Tokyo
Chess legend Bobby Fischer, wanted by US authorities and facing deportation from Japan, is seeking offers of political asylum from a third country, according to a Website attributed to a friend. Fischer has been wanted since the early 1990s for breaking a UN embargo imposed on the former Yugoslavia over the Bosnian war when he scooped more than three million dollars in prize money from a match held in Montengero. He was arrested in Japan earlier this month and has been held while authorities decide whether to extradite him to the United States. "He urgently requests an immediate offer of political asylum from a friendly third country," Miyoko Watai, the head of the Japan Chess Association and a personal friend of Fischer, said on a Website she set up in tribute. The statement said Fischer did not want to return to the United States, which she described as "Jew-controlled" saying he would face "a kangaroo court and 10 years in Federal prison and a likely early demise or worse on trumped up political charges." "Nor does he wish to remain in a hostile brutal and corrupt US-controlled Japan," the message said. Fischer faces up to 10 years in prison if he is found guilty of breaking the sanctions over his controversial rematch with Boris Spassky in Montenegro. Immigration officials said Tuesday that the chess legend was still undergoing deportation proceedings. The official said the authorities were still examining the case and that Fischer would not necessarily be extradited. Cases are often settled in days, but the process can drag on for weeks. A US embassy spokeswoman declined to comment on whether Washington had requested Fischer's extradition. Known for his strong character, Fischer was a symbol in the United States of the Cold War-era struggle against communism, battling it out with the greatest Soviet chess champions. In 1972, in Helsinki, the American genius broke 24 years of Soviet dominance by defeating Boris Spassky, and took home a world championship. After a nearly 20-year break, he jumped back into chess with a "revenge match" against Spassky in 1992. The match, that earned him more than three million dollars, was held in Montenegro, in the former Yugoslavia, despite a UN embargo in effect at the time.
| 
