MOSCOW. Nov 12 (Interfax) - Moscow's Meshchansky District Court has upheld an investigator's motion and extended the arrest of U.S. citizen Joseph Tater, charged with violence towards a female police officer in Moscow and planning to seek political asylum in Russia, the court press service told Interfax.
"The investigator's motion has been upheld," the press service said.
The court met on Monday.
It was reported on August 14 that Tater was detained in Moscow on charges of petty hooliganism. A criminal case into violence against a police officer was opened against him.
Moscow's Meshchansky District Court sentenced Tater to 15 days of administrative arrest for petty hooliganism in the same day. He was placed in a pretrial detention facility on the next day on criminal counts.
The lawyer said while the court was hearing an appeal against Tater's arrest that he came to Russia to seek political asylum. Tater told U.S. embassy representatives present in the courtroom that he did not deem himself to be a U.S. citizen.
Tater was charged with violence towards a police officer, without endangering the latter's life or health. He pleaded not guilty.
According to Interfax's source, Tater, a U.S. citizen permanently residing in the state of Georgia, born in Czechia in 1978, tried to check into a hotel of Moscow's Prospekt Mira without proper documents. Hotel personnel and police said he was aggressive and used foul language.
Tater was denied check-in due to the absence of a migration card and his behavior, the source told Interfax.
According to the ruling on Tater's administrative arrest, the American "having clearly shown disrespect for society, swore at hotel personnel in a foreign language, behaved aggressively and disrespectfully towards hotel guests, waved his arms, and did not respond to demands to stop the illegal actions."
A hotel employee said Tater "trashed his room" in the hotel he was staying earlier.
The ruling said the police warned Tater about the possible use of physical force against him, but did not react to the warning, was handcuffed and brought to a police station.
There, the American pushed and hit a female police officer on the forearm, the source told Interfax.
The administrative arrest ruling said Tater pled not guilty of hooliganism, claimed he did not swear and did not wave his arms, and hotel employees denied him accommodation because of "rude behavior" but refused to give a written denial. He also said he was drinking alcohol at the bar of the hotel where he was detained.
The source said Tater came to Russia in late July on a tourist visa.