- Category
- Latest news
US Citizen Joseph Tater Faces Forced Psychiatric Treatment After Moscow Court Ruling
- Authors
![Maryna_kulakova]( "Photo of Maryna Kulakova")
-924c3c302c27387e19f6c44aaeb98745.png "Photo of Maryna Kulakova")
A Moscow court ordered US citizen Joseph Tater to be committed to a psychiatric hospital for compulsory treatment after he was accused of assaulting a police officer last year, according to The Moscow Times on April 14.
The judge ruled that Tater was unfit to stand trial and granted a prosecution request for him to undergo involuntary treatment at a specialized psychiatric facility.
Tater’s lawyer, speaking to reporters, said she plans to appeal the ruling, which was issued after a closed-door hearing.
Joseph Tater, 46, was arrested in August 2024 after allegedly assaulting a police officer during an altercation with staff at a luxury hotel in Moscow. Following a court-ordered medical evaluation on March 15, a Moscow court approved his involuntary admission to a psychiatric facility.
In a court hearing last September, Tater expressed his desire to renounce his US citizenship and demanded that embassy officials leave. He also claimed that the CIA had been targeting him for years, according to Russian media reports.
His lawyer argued that Tater had traveled to Russia seeking political asylum due to alleged persecution by US authorities.
According to data from the Memorial Human Rights Center , Russian courts have sentenced at least 49 individuals to involuntary psychiatric confinement on political grounds. Advocacy groups claim that under Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin has increasingly revived this method to silence those deemed politically inconvenient.
The Memorial organization stated that Russian authorities use mental health diagnoses as a pretext to repress dissidents, activists, Muslims, scientists, and musicians. Those accused are often declared insane and subjected to forced psychiatric treatment.
Previously, Russian prosecutors have requested a 16-year prison sentence for Roman Ivanishin, a soldier who was captured by Ukrainian forces in 2023. This marks the first known criminal case in Russia based on a newly introduced law penalizing voluntary surrender during wartime.
-21d0b63c17f6020e4df75f6c6f9a2f4f.jpg "Photo of Ivan Khomenko")
