Illness or torture? What killed the American student detained by North Korea?
The 22-year-old university student who died six days after North Korea released him to the United States suffered "awful torturous mistreatment," according to his distraught family who have declined an autopsy.
In 2016, Otto Warmbier, from Cincinnati in Ohio, was sentenced to 15 years in prison after being convicted of stealing a propaganda poster from a North Korean hotel.
But after spending one year behind bars, Warmbier was medically evacuated home to the United States and died on Monday.
While North Korean officials claim Warmbier fell into a coma as a result of botulism following his trial, United States doctors and politicians said the explanation doesn't add up.
So just what happened to the promising university student?
Warmbier died Monday at 2.20pm on Monday surrounded by relatives in his home town of Cincinnati.
"It is our sad duty to report that our son, Otto Warmbier, has completed his journey home," his family said in a statement.
"The awful torturous mistreatment our son received at the hands of the North Koreans ensured that no other outcome was possible," they added.
The Pyongyang regime claimed the young man fell into a coma after contracting botulism and being given a sleeping pill.
An Ohio coroner will not perform an autopsy on the student after his family said they did not want one and an external examination will be conducted instead.
The family have not yet revealed the reason behind declining an autopsy on their son to confirm his cause of death.
Doctors treating Warmbier said he had suffered extensive tissue loss in all regions of his brain, but showed no signs of physical trauma. Medical tests offered no conclusive evidence as to the cause of his neurological injuries, and no evidence of a prior botulism infection.
US student jailed for stealing poster dies after year in North Korea detention
China: Otto Warmbier's death 'unfortunate'
They said Warmbier's severe brain injury was most likely - given his young age - to have been caused by cardiopulmonary arrest cutting the blood supply to the brain.
An American official said Warmbier had endured brutal beatings while behind bars, but had no evidence of physical abuse, according to the New York Times.
Warmbier's father Fred lashed out at Kim Jong-Un's authoritarian state last week, telling a news conference, "there is no excuse for any civilized nation to have kept his condition secret and denied him top-notch medical care for so long."
"When Otto returned to Cincinnati late on June 13 he was unable to speak, unable to see and unable to react to verbal commands. He looked very uncomfortable -- almost anguished," they said.
Other doctors have suggested the university student could have been heavily medicated or suffered a traumatic injury.
President Donald Trump had urged the nation to pray for Otto Warmbier, describing his ordeal as a "truly terrible thing."
“Otto’s fate deepens my administration’s determination to prevent such tragedies from befalling innocent people at the hands of regimes that do not respect the rule of law or basic human decency,” he said in a statement.
“The United States once again condemns the brutality of the North Korean regime as we mourn its latest victim.”
