Russia upholds detention of American Joseph Tater for assaulting police officer
MOSCOW (Reuters) -A Russian court on Thursday rejected an appeal from U.S. citizen Joseph Tater against his detention for assaulting a police officer.
Tater was first detained in August and jailed for 15 days for petty hooliganism after he was alleged to have abused staff at a Moscow hotel, something he denied.
Tater subsequently assaulted a police officer, the Interfax news agency previously reported, leading to a fresh criminal case. The charge is punishable by up to five years in prison.
Moscow's city court on Thursday denied Tater's appeal to be released from pre-trial detention, it said in a statement.
Tater denied any guilt. His detention is set to expire on Oct. 14.
The Interfax news agency cited his lawyer as saying that Tater had entered Russia "with the purpose of obtaining political asylum in the Russian Federation in connection with persecution by competent relevant authorities in the United States".
Tater's detention on the hooliganism charge had interrupted his efforts to seek asylum, Interfax cited his lawyer as saying in court.
Reuters was not immediately able to contact Tater's lawyer.
"My life is threatened in the United States," Interfax cited Tater as telling the court in English.
He told the court he had been hounded by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency for 18 years and falsely arrested, without elaborating further.
"I absolutely want to stay in Russia, or I will die," Interfax quoted him as saying.
Tater requested that U.S. Embassy officials leave the courtroom at the start of the proceedings on the grounds that he did not consider himself a U.S. citizen, Interfax reported.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Embassy in Moscow declined comment, citing privacy concerns.
Tater is one of at least 10 Americans currently behind bars in Russia.
On Tuesday, a court in Russia's Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad sentenced an American named Daniel Joseph Schneider to six years in prison on charges of kidnapping his own son from the boy's mother and trying to bring him out of Russia via Poland.
(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Lucy PapachristouEditing by Andrew Osborn and Ros Russell)
