UN demands answers over how freed American student ended up in coma
A United Nations human rights investigator has called on North Korea to explain why an American student was in a coma when he was returned home after more than a year in detention there.
Otto Warmbier, 22, has a severe brain injury and is in a state of ‘‘unresponsive wakefulness’’, according to his Ohio doctors. His family said he had been in a coma since March 2016, shortly after he was sentenced to 15 years’ hard labour in North Korea.
‘‘I am very concerned about his condition, and the authorities have to provide a clear explanation about what made him slip into a coma,’’ said Tomas Ojea Quintana, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea.
‘‘There seems to be a disproportionate relation between the act or crime that Otto Warmbier is accused of and the penalty imposed on him from a human right points of view. There is a serious concern in this respect.’’
The University of Virginia student’s father, Fred Warmbier, said his son had been ‘‘brutalised and terrorised’’ by the North Korean government.
He said the family did not believe North Korea’s story that his son had fallen into a coma after contracting botulism and being given a sleeping pill.
Ojea Quintana called on North Korea to ‘‘clarify the causes and circumstances’’ of Otto Warmbier’s release.
‘‘His ordeal could have been prevented had he not been denied basic entitlements when he was arrested, such as access to consular officers and representation by an independent legal counsel of his choosing,’’ added Ojea Quintana, a lawyer and veteran UN rights expert.