Otto Warmbier: US student freed by North Korea has ‘severe’ neurological injury, was ‘brutalised’

An American university student who was detained for 17 months in North Korea was brutalised while in custody, his father says.

Despite the “severe” injury, Otto Warmbier, 22, is stable and receiving treatment at the University of Cincinnati Medical Centre, hospital spokeswoman Kelly Martin said at a news briefing at Mr Warmbier’s high school in Wyoming, Ohio.

Mr Warmbier has been in a coma since March 2016, shortly after he was sentenced to 15 years of hard labour in North Korea, the family said on Tuesday after he was released.

He was arrested for trying to steal an item with a propaganda slogan, according to North Korean media.

The University of Virginia student was “brutalised and terrorised” by the North Korean regime, his father Fred Warmbier said at the news conference, two days after his son arrived in Ohio on a medical evacuation flight.

Source: Otto Warmbier: US student freed by North Korea has ‘severe’ neurological injury, was ‘brutalised’ – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)