A 21-year-old American student Otto Warmbier has been sentenced to 15 years hard labour after trying to steal an item bearing a propaganda slogan from his hotel in Pyongyang, North Korea.
Warmbier was detained in January after the incident, according to Reuters.
The Ohio student’s sentence for a prank was described as: “outrageous and shocking, and should not be permitted to stand,” Phil Robertson, deputy director of HRW’s Asia division, said in an emailed statement.
Human Rights Watch have condemned the sentence handed down to the student, who looked visibly distressed at the verdict.
North Korea has a notorious history of handing down lengthy sentences to foreign nationals, which is often used to force high-profile US politicians over to the country, as they have no formal diplomatic relations with America.
Roughly 6,000 people from the Western world visit North Korea annually, but the Canadian and US Governments advise against it.
Many people are very curious about the notoriously mysterious country, which has been criticised for many human rights breaches.
