3.25.2005
Game Over: Fischer Freed, Heads to Iceland (Asahi.com)
03/25/2005
The Asahi Shimbun
After eight months in detention, chess master Bobby Fischer left on a flight for Iceland on Thursday, but not before taking some parting shots at the Japanese government.
Fischer, wearing a baseball cap and sporting a long gray beard, was released from a detention center in Ushiku, Ibaraki Prefecture, and taken to Narita International Airport in a limousine provided by the Icelandic Embassy.
He flew to Reykjavik. Iceland has granted him citizenship.
As he walked through the airport, Fischer told reporters that his detention was ``a kidnapping.''
``I am not free until I get out of Japan,'' Fischer, 62, said.
At the same airport last July, Fischer was taken into custody by immigration authorities as he tried to leave Japan with an invalid U.S. passport.
The chess master has been wanted by the United States since 1992 when he played a chess rematch against his Russian rival, Boris Spassky, in the former Yugoslavia, an area then subject to U.S. economic sanctions.
Washington issued an arrest warrant after Fischer won the match and $3 million in prize money, a suspected violation of the U.S. sanction law.
While in custody, Fischer and his supporters opposed any plan for a deportation order to the United States.
He also renounced his U.S. citizenship, and among many requests, asked that he be sent instead to Iceland. It was in Iceland in 1972 that Fischer became a local hero for defeating Spassky in a Cold War-era match.
(More ... asahi.com：Game over: Fischer freed, heads to Iceland - ENGLISH) ¶ 18:47
The Asahi Shimbun
After eight months in detention, chess master Bobby Fischer left on a flight for Iceland on Thursday, but not before taking some parting shots at the Japanese government.
Fischer, wearing a baseball cap and sporting a long gray beard, was released from a detention center in Ushiku, Ibaraki Prefecture, and taken to Narita International Airport in a limousine provided by the Icelandic Embassy.
He flew to Reykjavik. Iceland has granted him citizenship.
As he walked through the airport, Fischer told reporters that his detention was ``a kidnapping.''
``I am not free until I get out of Japan,'' Fischer, 62, said.
At the same airport last July, Fischer was taken into custody by immigration authorities as he tried to leave Japan with an invalid U.S. passport.
The chess master has been wanted by the United States since 1992 when he played a chess rematch against his Russian rival, Boris Spassky, in the former Yugoslavia, an area then subject to U.S. economic sanctions.
Washington issued an arrest warrant after Fischer won the match and $3 million in prize money, a suspected violation of the U.S. sanction law.
While in custody, Fischer and his supporters opposed any plan for a deportation order to the United States.
He also renounced his U.S. citizenship, and among many requests, asked that he be sent instead to Iceland. It was in Iceland in 1972 that Fischer became a local hero for defeating Spassky in a Cold War-era match.
(More ... asahi.com：Game over: Fischer freed, heads to Iceland - ENGLISH) ¶ 18:47
