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North Korea: Otto Warmbier's family sues over son's death
A clearly disoriented Otto Warmbier being released by North Korea
Can't be. Must be fake news. Trump considers Kim "very honorable".
Related: Trump calls Kim Jong Un 'very honorable'
A clearly disoriented Otto Warmbier being released by North Korea
4/27/128
The parents of a US student who died days after his release from a North Korean prison are suing Pyongyang. Otto Warmbier was arrested in January 2016 for stealing a propaganda sign. North Korea has denied mistreating the 22-year-old student, but his parents insist that his death in July 2017 was the consequence of torture. The lawsuit comes at a key moment for US-North Korean relations, ahead of a planned meeting between the two countries' leaders in the coming weeks. The wrongful-death suit was filed in a federal court in Washington DC. Mr Warmbier's parents are seeking damages over what they describe as "the hostage taking, illegal detention, torture and killing" of their son. They say that he was forced to make a false confession before being "brutally tortured and murdered". Although foreign countries are usually protected from lawsuits in US courts by sovereign immunity, this does not apply in cases of state-sponsored terrorism.
He was accused of stealing a sign from the hotel where he and fellow students had been staying in the capital, and sentenced to 15 years' hard labour. By the time he returned to the US after 17 months in detention, Mr Warmbier was comatose and suffered from brain damage. US doctors found no evidence of botulism and said that the student had suffered a "severe neurological injury", probably caused by a cardiopulmonary arrest. At the time, US President Donald Trump blamed North Korea's "brutal regime" for Mr Warmbier's death.
Can't be. Must be fake news. Trump considers Kim "very honorable".
Related: Trump calls Kim Jong Un 'very honorable'