US student, freed after 18 months by N. Korea, dies

US student Otto Warmbier, freed after 18 months by North Korea, dies

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An American university student held prisoner in North Korea for 17 months died at a Cincinnati hospital on Monday, just days after he was released fromcaptivity in a coma, his family said.

Otto Warmbier, 22, who was arrested in North Korea while visiting as a tourist, had been described by doctors caring for him last week as having extensive brain damage that left him in a state of “unresponsive wakefulness.”

“Unfortunately, the awful torturous mistreatment our son received at the hands of the North Koreans, ensured that no other outcome was possible beyond the sad one we experienced today,” the family said in a statement after Warmbier’s death at 2.20 pm. His family has said that Warmbier lapsed into a coma in March 2016, shortly after he was sentenced to 15 years of hard labour in North Korea.

Physicians at the University of Cincinnati Medical Centre,where he died, said on last Thursday that Warmbier showed no sign of understanding language or awareness of his surroundings, and had made no “purposeful movements or behaviours,” though he was breathing on his own.

There was no immediate word from Warmbier’s family on the cause of his death. The circumstances of his detention and what medical treatment he may have received remained a mystery, but relatives have said his condition suggested that he had been physically abused by his captors.

The Ohio native was arrested, according to North Korean media, for trying to steal an item bearing a propaganda slogan. North Korea released Warmbier last week and said he was being freed “on humanitarian grounds.”