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.
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
TAKE BREAKS: A woman developed cystitis by refusing to get up to use the bathroom while playing mahjong for fear of disturbing her winning streak, a doctor said People should stand up and move around often while traveling or playing mahjong during the Lunar New Year holiday, as prolonged sitting can lead to cystitis or hemorrhoids, doctors said. Yuan’s General Hospital urologist Lee Tsung-hsi (李宗熹) said that he treated a 63-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙) who had been sitting motionless and holding off going to the bathroom, increasing her risk of bladder infection. Chao would drink beverages and not urinate for several hours while playing mahjong with friends and family, especially when she was on a winning streak, afraid that using the bathroom would ruin her luck, he said. She had
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry
RSS