US citizen detained in Moscow after hotel 'hooliganism'

A Moscow court has sentenced a US citizen to 15 days in jail for petty hooliganism, according to a Telegram channel monitoring the city's courts.

Russian news agency Interfax had previously reported that the man was detained on August 12 for hooliganism and subsequently assaulted a policewoman, leading to a separate criminal case being opened against him.

The authorities said that earlier, the police were called to a hotel because the man was behaving aggressively and using "non-normative lexicon" - referring to swear words.

The man reportedly ignored the officers' requests to change his behaviour and was eventually arrested.

At the police station, the man struck a policewoman, according to a police spokesman.

In addition to hooliganism, the US citizen also faces criminal charges for using violence against a representative of state authority.

The authorities named the man, born in 1978, as Joseph Tater, alleging that he failed to present the registration card issued upon his entry to the hotel.

At the beginning of the month, several US citizens were released from Russian custody in a large-scale prisoner swap in exchange for Russian agents held in custody in the United States and several European countries.

with Reuters