Otto Warmbier, Student Held By North Korea, Dies

American student Otto Warmbier was imprisoned in North Korea for over a year. Image by youtube
Otto Warmbier, an American student who was jailed in North Korea, has died, according to a statement released by his family.
Warmbier, 22, had been imprisoned in the reclusive nation for 17 months before he was released in early June. When he was received at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, doctors diagnosed him with a “severe neurological injury.”
“We thank everyone in the world who has kept him and our family in their thoughts and prayers,” the family’s statement said.
Though it is unknown if Warmbier’s family is Jewish, he was reportedly very active in his campus Hillel at the University of Virginia.
Contact Jesse Bernstein at [email protected] or on Twitter @__jbernstein
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
