US man detained in Russia sent to psychiatric hospital: report

MOSCOW: A US citizen detained in Russia and due to go on trial this month has been forcibly sent to a psychiatric hospital, TASS state news agency reported Sunday.

The 46-year-old man, Joseph Tater, 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 Moscow court has agreed to a request from doctors at a psychiatric hospital for Tater to undergo forcible hospitalisation as an in-patient due to mental illness, TASS reported, citing court documents. It said that a medical commission of doctors from Moscow´s Alexeyeva psychiatric hospital on March 15 found Tater showed “tension, impulsiveness (and) delusional ideas and attitudes” including a sense of “persecution” and “lack of critical attitude towards his state”. It was not immediately clear when the court issued the decision to hospitalise Tater. Tater as part of the investigation into his case was sent to undergo in-patient psychiatric checks at Moscow´s Serbsky Centre, TASS reported. This forensic psychiatric centre and hospital was notorious in the Soviet era for issuing political dissidents with false diagnoses of psychiatric illnesses. Tater´s trial is due to begin April 14 at a Moscow court.

He was reportedly released from pre-trial detention on March 13. His defence lawyer has appealed against his hospitalisation, TASS reported, accusing Russia of deciding “to isolate the defendant from society by placing him in a psychiatric hospital”. Russia has arrested several US citizens in recent years on charges ranging from espionage and criticising the Russian army to petty theft and family disputes.

At a court hearing in September Tater said he wanted to reject his US citizenship. He demanded that embassy officials leave and said that he had been targeted by the CIA for years, Russian news agencies reported.