Video: U.S. university student who was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in North Korea for stealing a propaganda poster has returned home with severe brain damage
Otto, 22, a University of Virginia student, was serving a 15-year sentence for stealing a political poster from a North Korea hotel. When North Korea released him under what it said were “humanitarian grounds”, officials said he had contracted botulism. However, doctors said there were no signs of botulism, a condition often associated with contaminated food, which can cause the nerves not to function properly and basically, leads to paralysis in some muscles.