A Russian national taken into police custody in Ratanakkiri province without a visa was brought to the Ministry of Interior’s Immigration Department in Phnom Penh for questioning yesterday.

A villager in Ratanakkiri’s Andong Meas district spotted Vasily Dorokhov, 35, uprooting cassava plants on a plantation and placing them into an abandoned car, district Police Chief Kim Channa said yesterday.

“He was covered with mud and soil,” said Channa, who added that Vasily told police that he is homeless and unemployed. Police believe he is mentally ill.

“We found his passport, a Russian driver’s licence and some clothes in his bag, but he did not have a visa.”

Vasily slept at the provincial police station on Friday and Saturday night and was taken to the Immigration Department yesterday, said Ratanakkiri provincial police chief Nguon Kourn.