Otto Warmbier, an American college student who was released by North Korea in a coma last week after more than a year in captivity, died on Monday, his family said.
The 22-year-old “has completed his journey home”, the family said in a statement.
“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,” his parents said.
His passing today is a loss for Ohio and for all of us. Jane and I are lifting up the Warmbier family in our prayers at this difficult time.
— Rob Portman (@senrobportman) June 19, 2017
Doctors had described his condition as a state of “unresponsive wakefulness” and said he suffered a “severe neurological injury” of unknown cause.
President Donald Trump called North Korea a “brutal regime” after the death was announced.
Mr Trump said: “Lot of bad things happened but at least we got him home to be with his parents.”
His father, Fred Warmbier, said last week he believed Otto had been fighting for months to stay alive to return to his family.
Fred Warmbier said last week he believed his son had been fighting for months to stay alive to return home (John Minchillo/AP)
Their statement on Monday said he had looked uncomfortable and anguished after returning June 13, but his countenance later changed.
“He was peace. He was home, and we believe he could sense that,” they said.
Mr Warmbier was convicted of subversion after he tearfully confessed that he had tried to steal a propaganda banner while visiting with a tour group from China.
He was sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labour in North Korea.
Though we don’t know why #NorthKorea decided to release #OttoWarmbier, the whole ordeal demonstrates the brutality of the regime.
— John Bolton (@AmbJohnBolton) June 19, 2017
The University of Virginia student was held for more than 17 months.
His family said last week they were told he had been a coma since soon after his March 2016 sentencing.
Doctors said he has suffered extensive loss of brain tissue and “profound weakness and contraction” of his muscles, arms and legs.
Doctors in Cincinnati said Otto Warmbier had suffered extensive loss of brain tissue and “profound weakness and contraction” of his muscles, arms and legs (John Minchillo/AP)
His eyes opened and blinked, but without signs of understanding verbal commands or his surroundings.
North Korea said he went into a coma after contracting botulism and taking a sleeping pill.
Doctors in Cincinnati said they found no active sign of botulism nor evidence of beatings.
His parents said in a statement on the day of his release that they wanted “the world to know how we and our son have been brutalised and terrorised by the pariah regime” and expressed relief he had been returned to “finally be with people who love him”.
Fred Warmbier praised his son’s “performance” and Mr Trump’s administration.
He was critical of former President Barack Obama’s approach to his son’s situation.
Former US president Barack Obama was criticised by the father of Otto Warmbier (Paul Chiasson/AP)
Otto Warmbier grew up in the northern Cincinnati suburb of Wyoming.
He won an award at the highly rated high school, and was on the soccer team, among other activities.
Three Americans remain held in North Korea.
The US government accuses North Korea of using such detainees as political pawns.
North Korea accuses Washington and South Korea of sending spies to overthrow its government.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here