TOKYO, Aug 24 (AFP) - Japan rejected Tuesday a request from former world chess champion Bobby Fischer for political asylum and said he would be deported, his supporters announced as they launched new legal bids to stop his deportation.
The ad hoc Committee to Free Bobby Fischer said the government had rejected an appeal against a deportation order in which Fischer, wanted in the United States for breaking an international embargo, requested protection as a political refugee.
"The Japanese justice ministry rejected Bobby Fischer's demand for protection as a political refugee saying that the charges outstanding against him in the United States are not political in nature," committee head John Bosnitch said in a statement.
"Justice Minister (Daizo) Nozawa also formally rejected Bobby Fischer's appeal of the deportation order issued against him by the Immigration Bureau," he said.
Bosnitch said a ministry official who delivered the government's decision to Fischer had told him he would be deported immediately.
"The minister said that Bobby Fischer's grounds for appealing the deportation were insufficient and that the deportation should take place," Bosnitch said, reiterating that Fischer's supporters were resolved to continuing their legal battle.
"The minister did not address even one of the clearly illegal violations of procedure that were cited in Bobby's appeal," he said.
"Even if he is not deported, their intentional verbal threat constitutes cruel psychological intimidation and abuse," Bosnitch said.
Officials at the ministry could not be reached for immediate comment.
Fischer has been wanted by Washington since 1992 for earning over three million dollars in a chess match staged in the former Yugoslavia in defiance of an international embargo. He faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
He has been held by Japanese immigration authorities since July 13 when he was detained after trying to board a flight to the Philippines using an invalid passport. His passport has been revoked by the United States.
His lawyer Masako Suzuki told AFP she had filed for an injunction against Fischer's deportation immediately after learning the government had rejected the appeal.
She had also filed a separate lawsuit demanding the cancellation of the deportation order, she said.
"He will stay in Japan for the time being," Suzuki said, adding she expected the court would take about a month to consider whether the deportation order should be executed.
The case against the justice minister's rejection of the appeal should take about a year, she said.
On Friday the Tokyo District Court rejected another bid to halt deportation procedures against Fischer, who immediately appealed.
That case could drag on for months, with his supporters pledging to take it all the way to the Supreme Court if the decision is not reversed.
Fischer has also applied to marry his Japanese fiancee, but the application was refused by authorities last week due to the lack of necessary documents, including Fischer's passport, his lawyer has said.
The chess master has also said he intends to renounce his US citizenship.
US officials have said Fischer would not escape prosecution even if he gave up his US citizenship and married a Japanese woman.