WASHINGTON, Aug 24 (AFP) - Ex-world chess champion Bobby Fischer wants to see a US consular officer, the State Department said Tuesday after the Japanese government rejected his request for political asylum and told him he would be deported.
"We have been in touch with Mr Fischer concerning his request for a consular visit, and that a consular officer will visit Mr Fischer soon," said Adam Ereli, the department's deputy spokesman.
It is not immediately known why Fischer wanted to meet the consular officer.
"Beyond that, I really don't have much to add because either, A, it concerns information that is covered by the Privacy Act waiver; or, B, it concerns information that is really the place of the Japanese authorities to talk about," Ereli said.
The last time a consular officer from the US embassy in Tokyo visited Fischer in detention was July 15, three days after 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 His passport has been revoked by the United States.
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.
Asked whether he was pleased with the Japanese order to deport Fischer, Ereli said the United States had no opinion on it.
"This is a Japanese ruling based on Japanese law, and it's the Japanese process working itself out. It's not something to be pleased or not pleased about. It is an administrative judicial ruling," he said.
Fischer's supporters under the so-called ad hoc Committee to Free Bobby Fischer said the government had rejected an appeal against a deportation order in which he requested protection as a political refugee.
Committee head John Bosnitch said in a statement a Japanese justice ministry official who delivered the government's decision to Fischer had told him he would be deported immediately.
Fischer's lawyer Masako Suzuki told AFP in Tokyo that she had filed for an injunction against Fischer's deportation immediately after learning the government had rejected his appeal.
She had also filed a separate lawsuit demanding the cancellation of the deportation order, she said.