Kasich Campaign Press Release - Kasich on Warmbier Sentencing in North Korea

WCPO.com

Otto Warmbier: Cincinnati native sentenced to 15 years hard labor in North Korea

PYONGYANG, North Korea — Ohio Gov. John Kasich is calling on North Korea to immediately release a 21-year-old student from Cincinnati who was sentencedWednesday to 15 years of hard labor.

Otto Warmbier, a University of Virginia undergraduate, was convicted and sentenced for subversion in a one-hour trial in North Korea's Supreme Court. The sentencing took place weeks after authorities presented him to media and he tearfully confessed that he had tried to steal a propaganda banner.

"North Korea should...let him return to his family here in Ohio," Kasich said."His detention was completely unjustified and the sentence North Korea imposed on him is an affront to concepts of justice.

"Continuing to hold him only further alienates North Korea from the international community. I urge the Obama administration to redouble its efforts to secure his release and ask all Ohioans to continue to lift up Otto and his family in prayer in support of his swift, safe return."

Warmbier was charged with subversion under Article 60 of North Korea's criminal code. The court held that he had committed a crime "pursuant to the U.S. government's hostile policy toward (the North), in a bid to impair the unity of its people after entering it as a tourist."

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