TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A foreign man, believed to be a Russian, was sentenced to five months in prison Saturday (March 7) for jumping on to the landing gear of a flight about to depart for Palau last year.

The Taoyuan District Court found the suspect guilty of violating immigration and aviation laws, CNA reported. His name and identity were never established because he refused to speak, making it difficult to determine whether he was a citizen of Russia or of Belarus, an element which might make his repatriation difficult once he finishes serving his jail term.

Since he had already spent four months in detention, he might only have to spend the remaining one month in prison before his release, CNA reported.

During the investigation, he received the assistance of an Orthodox priest, to whom he explained in drawings that he had wanted to travel to Palau, the destination of the China Airlines flight he tried to enter at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on November 2.

The pilot of a South Korean Asiana Airlines plane taxiing behind spotted and told the authorities, who could arrested him before he managed to disappear inside the plane.