Russian state media says American Joseph Tater out of country after arrest, psychiatric hospitalization
Joseph Tater, a U.S. citizen arrested in Russia in August 2024 after an apparent tussle with hotel staff and then forcibly admitted to a psychiatric hospital in April this year, without ever standing trial, has left Russia, according to the country's state-run TASS news agency.
TASS said Tater, 46, was discharged from a psychiatric facility in Moscow, where he spent over a month.
In April, TASS reported that Tater had been examined by doctors and diagnosed with a mental disorder, and then admitted for compulsory psychiatric treatment.
Tater was accused by Russian authorities of abusing hotel staff in Moscow upon his initial arrest. Officials later said he was also being investigated on suspicion of assaulting a police officer, a charge that could have seen him face up to five years in prison.
Tater claimed during a court hearing that he was being persecuted by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and was seeking political asylum in Russia.
In this photo released by Meshchansky District Court press service on Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024, U.S. citizen Joseph Tater stands in a courtroom facing criminal assault charges after allegedly attacking a police officer in a Moscow hotel.
Meshchansky District Court Press Service via AP
Russia imprisoned several Americans as tensions with Washington soared in recent years. Paul Whelan, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and teacher Marc Fogel were all designated wrongfully detained by the U.S. government, along with dual U.S.-Russian national Ksenia Karelina.
All four of those Americans have been freed in prisoner swaps with Moscow.
Among the U.S. nationals still jailed in Russia is U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Gordon Black, whose three-year, nine-month prison sentence for robbing and threatening his Russian girlfriend was reduced in April by seven months.
Robert Gilman, 72, is currently serving a 3 1/2-year sentence in Russia for assaulting a police officer, and Travis Leake, a musician convicted on drug charges, was sentenced to 13 years in prison last summer.
A Russian court sentenced another 72-year-old American, Stephen Hubbard, to nearly seven years in prison in October for fighting alongside Ukraine's military.
TASS quoted Tater's lawyer, Polina Vlasyuk, as saying she had no information regarding his whereabouts or circumstances.
contributed to this report.
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