Russia court sends US citizen awaiting trial to a psychiatric hospital
Joseph Tater was arrested in August after being accused of assaulting a police officer during a confrontation with staff at a Moscow hotel
A US citizen awaiting trial in Moscow has been forcibly admitted to a psychiatric hospital, Russian state media reported on Sunday.
Joseph Tater, 46, was arrested in August 2024 after being accused of assaulting a police officer during a confrontation with staff at an upmarket hotel in the Russian capital.
A Moscow court agreed to admit Tater to a psychiatric hospital non-voluntarily after a medical evaluation on March 15, Russian state news agency Tass reported.
It said that doctors had described Tater as displaying signs of “tension, impulsivity, persecutory delusions, and lack of self-awareness regarding his condition”.
The US embassy in Moscow declined to comment on the case, citing privacy concerns.
Tater had been set to stand trial on April 14 on charges of assaulting a police officer, which is punishable with a maximum sentence of five years imprisonment. It is unclear when the court made its decision to detain him on medical grounds, but Tass previously reported that he had been released from pre-trial detention at the end of March.