Americans Arrested abroad

​Part V: Legal Recourse

In the last piece of our five-part series on international arrests, we’ll be exploring the legal aftermath of incarceration under the worst of circumstances. One of the most famous recent cases of an American held abroad is that of Otto Warmbier, a University of Virginia student who was apprehended in North Korea and died in 2018. In the aftermath of his demise, his parents have taken legal action against North Korea—and won.
 
Arrest, Detainment, and Death
Warmbier, as a part of his studies at the University of Virginia, was about to spend the early months of 2016 studying abroad in China. Before his program began, he decided to take a trip to North Korea organized by a Chinese tour company. During this trip, Warmbier allegedly attempted to steal a propaganda poster in an employee area of his hotel. He was arrested at Pyongyang International Airport while attempting to leave the country with his tour group; his infraction had apparently been picked up by security cameras.

In February, Warmbier gave what is widely considered to be a false confession at a televised media broadcast. The next month, he was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for his crime.
 
In June 2017, Warmbier was released to the United States in a comatose state. North Korea claimed that botulism was to blame; doctors in the U.S. could not find sings to corroborate this. According to records from North Korea, Warmbier had been in this state since April 2016. He was taken off life support at the request of his parents, Cindy and Fred Warmbier, on June 19, 2017.

 
Lawsuit
In April 2018, less than a year after losing their son, the Warmbiers sued North Korea. Although representatives of North Korea never showed up in a D.C. court to defend itself, the case presented an opportunity to highlight how Otto was used as a political pawn, kidnapped, tortured, and murdered. Because North Korea is on a list of state sponsors of terrorism, victims of terrorist acts can sue it and receive compensation through the United State Victims of State Sponsors of Terrorism Fund, with a cap of $35 million per group of plaintiffs.

The Warmbiers won their case in December 2018, when a federal judge ordered North Korea to pay $501 million in damages. Although it is extremely unlikely that North Korea will pay them anything, they will receive some recourse through the aforementioned fund.
 
Speaking Out
Cindy and Fred Warmbier were unable to publicly speak about their ordeal during their son’s detainment, as they had been instructed not to by the government. Now, they have vowed that their son’s story won’t be forgotten. “We’re not special, but we’re Americans and we know what freedom’s like, and we have to stand up for this. We have to,” she said in court. Speaking out is all they can do to shed light on what North Korea is doing to foreign detainees—and to hopefully, eventually, affect change.

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