Otto Warmbier | |
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Born | Otto Frederick Warmbier December 12, 1994 Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S. |
Died | June 19, 2017 Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S. | (aged 22)
Resting place | Oak Hill Cemetery, Glendale, Ohio, U.S. |
Education | Wyoming High School |
Alma mater | University of Virginia London School of Economics |
Detention | |
Country | North Korea |
Detained | January 2, 2016 |
Charge | Subversion (through alleged attempted theft of a propaganda poster) |
Sentence | 15 years imprisonment with hard labor |
Released | June 12, 2017 |
Otto Frederick Warmbier (December 12, 1994 – June 19, 2017) was an American college student who was imprisoned in North Korea in 2016 on a charge of subversion. In June 2017, he was released by North Korea in a vegetative state and died soon after his parents requested his feeding tube be removed.
Warmbier entered North Korea as part of a guided tour group on December 29, 2015. On January 2, 2016, he was arrested at Pyongyang International Airport while awaiting departure from the country. He was convicted of attempting to steal a propaganda poster from his hotel, for which he was sentenced to 15 years of imprisonment with hard labor.[1]
Shortly after his sentencing in March 2016, Warmbier suffered a severe neurological injury from an unknown cause and fell into a coma, which lasted until his death.[2] North Korean authorities did not disclose his medical condition until June 2017, when they announced he had fallen into a coma as a result of botulism and a sleeping pill. He was freed later that month, still in a comatose state after 17 months in captivity. He was repatriated to the United States and arrived in Cincinnati, Ohio, on June 13, 2017. He was taken to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center for immediate evaluation and treatment.
Warmbier never regained consciousness and died on June 19, 2017, six days after his return to the United States when his parents requested his feeding tube be removed.[3] A coroner's report stated that he died from an unknown injury causing lack of oxygen to the brain.[4] Non-invasive internal scans did not find any signs of fractures to his skull.[3]
In 2018, a U.S. federal court found the North Korean government liable for Warmbier's torture and death, in a default judgment in favor of Warmbier's parents after North Korea did not contest the case.[5][6]
He was denied communication with his family by any means until in early June 2017 they were informed he was in a coma and had been in that condition for one year.
McCurry
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).His once straight teeth were misaligned, and he had an unexplained scarred wound on his foot. An expert said in court papers that the injuries suggested he had been tortured with electrocution.