Otto Warmbier dies aged 22 after ‘tortuous mistreatment at hands of north Korea’, his heartbroken family reveals in statement

The comatose college student who was released from a North Korean prison last week died Monday afternoon, his family said.

Otto Warmbier, a 22-year-old University of Virginia undergrad who served 18 months behind bars in the hermit kingdom for alleged anti-state acts, died at 2:20 p.m. at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, according to a family statement obtained by NBC News.

“It would be easy at a moment like this to focus on all that we lost — future time that won’t be spent with a warm, engaging brilliant young man whose curiosity and enthusiasm for life knew no bounds,” his relatives said.

“But we choose to focus on the time we were given to be with this remarkable person.”

The family said that when Warmbier returned home last Tuesday, he was “unable to speak, unable to see and unable to react to verbal commands.”

“Unfortunately, the awful torturous mistreatment our son received at the hands of the North Koreans ensured that no other outcome was possible beyond the sad one we experienced today,” they wrote.

Warmbier was convicted of subversion at a one-hour trial in North Korea after confessing that he’d tried to steal a political banner while visiting the country with a tour group.