TOKYO - Japan will let detained US-born chess legend Bobby Fischer move to Iceland which has granted him citizenship, refusing US demands to extradite him to the United States where he faces prison, news agencies said Wednesday.
Jiji Press and Kyodo News said the Japanese justice ministry made the decision after Iceland presented documents showing that Fischer was one of its citizens.
An immigration department spokesman declined comment. Icelandic ambassador Thordur Oskarsson, asked about the report, told AFP his embassy had presented the papers but had not yet heard a decision.
Fischer, now 62, was detained in July as he tried to fly out of Japan to the Philippines on an allegedly invalid US passport.
The chess legend, known for his outspoken criticism of the United States, faces 10 years in prison for defying US sanctions on Yugoslavia by playing a game there in 1992 amid the Balkan wars.
The parliament of Iceland, where Fischer played his most famous match in 1972, granted him citizenship Monday as he looked set to be sent to the United States.
Japan's Justice Minister Chieko Noono said Tuesday it was "legally possible" to send Fischer to Iceland as long as he gets Icelandic citizenship.
The US government expressed disappointment over Iceland's move, calling Fischer a "fugitive from justice" who had a federal warrant for his arrest.
Supporters of Fischer, who is staying at the Ushiku immigration lock-up northeast of Tokyo, have said he has lost weight and become haggard in detention, growing a long beard.
He was placed in solitary confinement for four days earlier this month in a tussle with guards over an egg.
Fischer was once hailed as an American hero for the 1972 match in Reykjavik in which he defeated Boris Spassky, then a Soviet citizen, at the height of the Cold War.
But he grew increasingly vehement in his denunciations of the United States, going on Filipino radio on September 11, 2001 to hail the terrorist attacks as "wonderful news."
03/23/2005 10:12 GMT