Otto Warmbier’s heartbroken mother reveals he was blind, deaf and ‘jerking violently’ after his release from North Korean jail
The 22-year-old was left badly brain damaged before returning to the US six days before he died all over allegedly stealing a poster.
PARENTS of an American student who had been held captive in North Korea have described how his brutal captors "destroyed him".
Otto Warmbier's parents Fred and Cindy say when their previously healthy 22-year-old son was returned to the US he was blind, deaf and had mangled teeth - and howling in an “inhuman way”.
Walking up the steps of the private medical plane carrying their son after it landed in Cincinnati, they recalled hearing a “howling' sound”.
Fred said: “We walked over to the plane, the engines are still humming, they had just landed…when we got halfway up the steps we heard this howling, involuntary, inhuman sound.
“We weren't really certain what it was.”
But to their horror they quickly realised it was their son Otto who was screaming and jerking violently on a stretcher.
Fred said: “Otto had a shaved head, he had a feeding tube coming out of his nose, he was staring blankly into space, jerking violently.”
Otto died in June a few days after he was sent home in a mysterious coma after more than a year in prison in North Korea after he was convicted for allegedly stealing a propaganda poster.
Fred says his family wanted to speak out after hearing North Korea claiming to be a victim.
He says North Korea "is not a victim. They're terrorists".
Fred told Fox and Friends: "They kidnapped Otto, they tortured him, they intentionally injured him. “They are not victims, they are terrorists."
They say the bright University of Virginia student was "jerking violently," making inhuman sounds and staring blankly when he returned to the US.
Meanwhile US President Donald Trump today accused North Korea of brutally abusing Otto, saying the young man had been "tortured beyond belief".
Trump had previously blamed Pyongyang's "brutal regime" for Warmbier's plight but it was the first time the president publicly accused North Korea of torture in the case.
US officials have said Trump was personally taken aback by Warmbier's death and his comment ratchets up the pressure on Kim Jong-Un's police state regime.
"Otto was tortured beyond belief by North Korea," Trump said on Twitter.
His post followed the airing of an interview with Warmbier's parents.
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