North Korea prisoner returned to US in coma

American Otto Warmbier, held prisoner in North Korea since January 2016 when he was arrested at the Pyongyang Airport and accused of crimes against the state for stealing a propaganda poster from his hotel, was returned to the US in a coma on June 13. He died on June 20. No autopsy was performed.

North Korean officials said that Warmbier had been in a coma since soon after his trial, the coma resulting from a case of botulism and his being given a sleeping pill. However, they also claimed to have returned Warmbier to the US in his “normal state of health,” saying that his subsequent death is a mystery. US doctors found no evidence of botulism and determined that Warmbier’s coma was induced by a lack of oxygen in the brain, possibly from either an extended cardiac arrest or asphyxiation.

Three US citizens remain imprisoned in North Korea.