State media say 46-year-old arrested in Moscow for allegedly assaulting police officer diagnosed with mental disorder.A United States citizen who is due to go on trial in Russia next week has been forcibly sent to a psychiatric hospital after a court agreed to a request from doctors, according to Russian state media.
Joseph Tater, 46, was arrested in Moscow in August 2024 and accused of assaulting a police officer after abusing staff at a hotel. If convicted, he could face up to five years in prison.
A medical commission of doctors from Moscow’s Alexeyeva psychiatric hospital found on March 15 that Tater showed “tension, impulsiveness [and] delusional ideas and attitudes”, including a sense of “persecution” and “lack of critical attitude towards his state”.
A Moscow court agreed to a request from doctors at a psychiatric hospital for Tater to undergo forcible hospitalisation as an inpatient due to mental illness, state-run TASS news agency reported on Sunday, citing court documents.
It was not immediately clear when the court issued the decision to hospitalise Tater.
Tater’s trial is due to begin on April 14. TASS reported his case could be dismissed if the Meshchansky District Court accepts the psychiatric diagnosis, which could lead to court-ordered treatment instead of trial.
The US citizen was sent to undergo inpatient psychiatric checks at Moscow’s Serbsky Centre as part of the investigation into his case. The institution was notorious in the Soviet era for issuing political dissidents with false diagnoses of psychiatric illnesses.
Tater’s lawyer has appealed against his hospitalisation, accusing Russia of deciding “to isolate the defendant from society by placing him in a psychiatric hospital”.
The defence lawyer added that Tater had come to Russia “with the purpose of obtaining political asylum in connection with persecution by the relevant authorities in the US”.
Prisoner swaps
Authorities in Russia have arrested several US citizens in recent years on charges ranging from espionage and criticising the Russian army to petty theft and family disputes.
Russia last year freed Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich and ex-US Marine Paul Whelan as part of an extensive prisoner swap with the US and other Western nations.
Sixteen people were released from Russia, including five Germans and seven Russian political prisoners.
Basketball star Brittney Griner was freed from a Russian prison in 2022 after a prisoner swap with convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout, who was serving a 25-year jail term in the US.
Griner was arrested at a Russian airport earlier that year and she later pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the discovery of cannabis-derived oil cartridges in her luggage.
She was sentenced to nine years in prison on charges of possessing and smuggling drugs. Griner said she made an “honest mistake” and had not meant to break the law.
