"Former world chess champion Bobby Fischer of the US, seen here in 1992, has been wanted in his home country since 1992 for breaking an international embargo on the former Yugoslavia"(AFP/File/Dragan Filipovic)
Posted on 07/16/2004 1:09:24 PM PDT by BenLurkin
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US State Department was tightlipped on the fate of former world chess champion Bobby Fischer, detained in Japan and wanted on a 12-year-old US warrant charging him with violating an international commercial embargo on the former Yugoslavia.
"There's a limit to what I can say about the situation of Mr Fischer because of the Privacy Act," spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters.
"We don't have permission in terms of a Privacy Act waiver to release any further information on Mr Fischer."
The Privacy Act gives persons in custody the option, before they are formally charged, of having authorities release or withhold information about them.
Fischer, 61, was taken into custody at Tokyo's Narita airport on Tuesday as he was preparing to catch a flight to Manila, said Miyoko Watai, the head of the Japan Chess Association and a personal friend of Fischer.
The US embassy in Tokyo also declined to give details, citing Privacy Act constraints.
Boucher said Fischer was detained by Japanese authorities on alleged immigration law violations.
He said a US consular official had visited him in detention.
Boucher referred questions on the prospect of Fischer's extradition to the United States, or pending charges, to the Department of Justice (news - web sites) and the appropriate courts.
"I wouldn't want to speculate on what Mr Fischer might have violated, other than say he is subject to a warrant for arrest from December 15, 1992, by the US District Court in the District of Columbia," he said.
Fischer has been wanted by the US authorities ever since he went to Montenegro in 1992 for a chess match against Russian chess master Boris Spassky in violation of US economic sanctions against Yugoslavia at the time. The match earned him 3.3 million dollars.
The meeting was a rematch of a 1972 encounter at the height of the Cold War when Fischer defeated the Soviet Union's Spassky, and then stopped playing.
"Former world chess champion Bobby Fischer of the US, seen here in 1992, has been wanted in his home country since 1992 for breaking an international embargo on the former Yugoslavia"(AFP/File/Dragan Filipovic)
This will be another few million out of the taxpayer's pockets for a chess match. It's ridiculous, given how things have changed in that part of the world.
Shah bump.
Exactly. He is obviously nuts. This serves no one. The damage he did is long in the past (if there was any). Sanctions are a ridiculous liberal obsession anyway. Let the crazy schmuk go back to the Phillipines and get back to looking for Moslem Terrorists!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.