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- Free Malaysia Today
US citizen leaves Russia after detention in psychiatric hospital
Russia has arrested several US citizens in recent years – bringing accusations from Washington of 'hostage-taking' for use in prisoner exchanges. (AP pic)
MOSCOW : American Joseph Tater has left Russia after nearly a year in detention, including in a psychiatric hospital, state news agency TASS reported on Friday.
Tater, 46, was arrested in Moscow in August and accused of abusing staff at a hotel, and later, attacking a police officer.
In April, a court found him unfit for trial and sent him for 'forcible measures of a medical nature' – meaning compulsory psychiatric treatment.
He had already been moved from pre-trial detention to a psychiatric ward after a medical commission said he showed 'tension, impulsiveness (and) delusional ideas and attitudes', TASS reported at the time.
According to the Russian state news agency, Tater said at a court hearing in September that he wanted to renounce his US citizenship and that the CIA was targeting him.
On Friday, TASS said Tater had been discharged and left the country.
'The American citizen Tater, who had been interned in a psychiatric hospital by court order, was authorised to leave a clinic in Moscow and has left the territory of the Russian Federation,' it reported, citing law enforcement.
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 – bringing accusations from Washington of 'hostage-taking' for use in prisoner exchanges.
In April, US-Russian dual national Ksenia Karelina was freed after being sentenced to 12 years in a penal colony for donating around US$50 to a pro-Ukraine charity.
In return, Washington released Arthur Petrov, a Russian-German national accused of illegally exporting US-made electronics to manufacturers supplying the Russian military.
