Former world chess champion Bobby Fischer has been refused permission to leave the detention centre in Japan where he is being held pending deportation to the United States.
His lawyer warned legal action would be taken against the Japanese government unless he was freed soon.
The former champion is fighting deportation from Japan to the United States, where he is wanted for violating sanctions against Yugoslavia by playing a chess match there in 1992.
He has been in custody in Japan since being arrested last July for travelling on an invalid US passport.
Iceland, where Fischer won the world title in 1972 in a classic Cold War encounter with Soviet champion Boris Spassky, has offered Fischer a home and issued him a special passport that would allow him to travel through 15 West European countries.
The passport had been held for him at the Icelandic embassy in Tokyo pending his release by Japanese authorities but was handed to his lawyer on Monday.
"I have requested that the Ministry of Justice allow his voluntary departure immediately," the lawyer told a news conference on Tuesday.
She said an airline ticket had been bought for Fischer and that he had formally applied for voluntary departure to Iceland.
"If we do not get the decision and permission for his departure, we will sue the Justice Ministry as soon as possible."