A man who was arrested in November last year for attempting to climb onto a China Airlines airplane as it prepared to take off at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport has been charged with contravening the Immigration Act (入出國及移民法), prosecutors said yesterday.
The man was previously reported to be from Belarus, but prosecutors said that they have yet to ascertain his nationality.
He has not spoken to law enforcement officers since his arrest and remains uncooperative, despite efforts to communicate with him in several languages, the Taoyuan District Prosecutors’ Office said.
The man had no form of identification on him when he was arrested on Nov. 2 last year while attempting to climb onto the landing gear of the China Airlines aircraft, which was about to depart for Palau, prosecutors said.
In the dramatic incident, the man was spotted darting out of the bushes on the perimeter of the airport and running to the undercarriage of the Boeing 737-800 as it taxied toward the runway for takeoff.
The pilot of an Asiana Airlines airplane, which was behind the China Airlines aircraft, reported seeing the man, who was subdued by airport security, Taoyuan International Airport Corp said.
The man refused to speak to police and had no identification on him, but because a Bible and other books found in his backpack were in Russian, officers called for a Russian interpreter to try to communicate with him.
However, the interpreter, a priest from an Orthodox Church, was also unsuccessful in eliciting any response from the man, prosecutors said.
During the investigation, prosecutors said that the only information they managed to obtain was that the man wanted to go to Palau, which he indicated by means of a drawing.
The man’s case is to be heard by the Taoyuan District Court, prosecutors said.
If found guilty, he could face a maximum of three years in prison and/or a fine of up to NT$90,000, they said.
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