Who is Otto Warmbier? | The American student North Korea ‘murdered’

The United States government will not be taking the death of this 22-year-old lightly.

Otto Warmbier was shipped back to the US in a state of coma after spending 17 months in a North Korean prison but passed on on Monday afternoon in a Cincinnati hospital. His parents put out a statement, “It is our sad duty to report that our son, Otto Warmbier, has completed his journey home. Surrounded by his loving family, Otto died today at 2.20pm,”.

Otto Warmbier became a subject of international discourse when he was arrested while on a tour of North Korea in January 2016. He had travelled to the country with other travel companions with a Chinese tour company, Young Pioneer Group.

The 10-day trip had gone well until the final day when Otto was arrested while trying to board a plane at Pyongyang Airport for allegedly taking a propaganda poster off the wall of his hotel room. He was immediately charged to court and in a trial that reportedly lasted barely one hour, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison and hard labour.

Before his trial, Otto wept while he pleaded and confessed to stealing the poster, “I wish that the United States administration never manipulate people like myself in the future to commit crimes against foreign countries. I entirely beg you, the people and government of the DPRK, for your forgiveness. Please! I made the worst mistake of my life”.

When Otto arrived the United States last Tuesday, he was checked into the University of Cincinnati Hospital. Dr Daniel Kanter, medical director of the neuroscience intensive care unit said at a press conference, Otto “shows no sign of understanding language, responding to verbal commands or awareness of his surrounding”. According to The Guardian, Dr Kanter said, “He has not spoken. He has not engaged in any purposeful movements or behaviors”. The tests passed on him showed “extensive tissue loss in all regions of his brain”.

Meanwhile, North Korea had made a case in its own defense claiming Otto had contracted botulism and had fallen into a coma immediately after he was sentenced. Botulism, according to Healthline , is “a rare but very serious illness that transmits through food, contact with contaminated soil, or through an open wound. Without early treatment, botulism can lead to paralysis, breathing difficulties, and death.”

In a statement after his return, his father, Fred Warmbier insisted that North Korea lied and in fact kept his son’s state of health secret until he was brought back to the US. He told newsmen that the 22-year-old had been “terrorised and brutalised” while in detention.

Otto was a student at the University of Virginia and graduated from Wyoming high school in 2013.

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