Evidence inconclusive on Otto Warmbier being tortured in North Korea: Coroner
The Hamilton County coroner said that there is not enough evidence to determine that Otto Warmbier was tortured, despite comments his parents made Tuesday discussing his waning condition when he was returned from North Korea.
Otto Warmbier died on June 19, just six days after he was evacuated from North Korea, where he had been arrested for allegedly trying to steal a propaganda poster in January 2016. He was later convicted in a one-hour trial and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor.
Dr. Lakshmi Sammarco held a press conference Wednesday afternoon to discuss the findings of the coroner’s report on Warmbier’s death, saying that his body was considerably „well nourished“ considering he had been bedridden for more than a year, and that the 22-year-old would have had to receive „‚round-the-clock“ care.
But on Tuesday, his parents appeared on Fox News‘ „Fox & Friends,“ saying he was tortured. “It looked like someone had taken a pair of pliers of rearranged his bottom teeth,“ Fred Warmbier said.
Sammarco said there was „no evidence of trauma“ to Warmbier’s teeth. When asked by a reporter whether he could have been tortured, she responded, „We don’t have enough evidence…to draw any complete conclusions.
