Former world chess champion Bobby Fischer has told US authorities he wants to renounce his American citizenship and be declared a refugee.
Fischer is wanted by Washington for defying sanctions on Yugoslavia. He arrived in Japan in April and was detained at Narita airport near Tokyo last month when he tried to leave for the Philippines on a passport US officials say was invalid.
Japanese immigration officials rejected Fischer's initial appeal last week and his lawyer, Mr Masako Suzuki, has made a second plea to Justice Minister Mr Daizo Nozawa.
"He decided to renounce his US citizenship and phoned the US embassy," Mr Suzuki told a news conference, adding that Fischer would likely become a stateless person for some period of time and that his supporters would try to have the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees register him as a refugee.
The chess grandmaster has eluded the US authorities since 1992, when he played in a match in Yugoslavia even though US economic sanctions were in place against the country at the time.
