Otto Warmbier’s Parents Sue North Korea Over Son’s ‘Torture And Murder’
American student Otto Warmbier was imprisoned in North Korea for over a year. Image by youtube
By Aiden Pink April 26, 2018
The parents of Otto Warmbier filed suit in federal court against North Korea on Thursday, alleging that the regime “brutally tortured and murdered” him during his 17 months in captivity.
Warmbier arrived in the United States in a coma after being released by Pyongyang and died soon after.
Warmbier was “taken hostage, kept as a prisoner for political purposes, used as a pawn and singled out for exceptionally harsh and brutal treatment by Kim Jong Un,” his father Fred said in a statement. “Kim and his regime have portrayed themselves as innocent, while they intentionally destroyed our son’s life. This lawsuit is another step in holding North Korea accountable for its barbaric treatment of Otto and our family.”
Otto Warmbier had entered the country while on vacation from a college study abroad program in Hong Kong. He was convicted in 2016 of stealing a propaganda poster and sentenced to 15 years hard labor. He developed severe brain damage one month later, but was not freed for another year.
The suit asks for punitive damages over Warmbier’s injuries and death, and emotional damages for the family’s suffering, The Washington Post reported. It comes at a time that the Trump administration is negotiating with North Korea over its nuclear program.
Warmbier is Jewish and was active in Hillel at the University of Virginia, where he was a student. His family reportedly kept his Jewish identity a secret so as not to embarrass the regime.
Contact Aiden Pink at [email protected] or on Twitter, @aidenpink
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.
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.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
