WARMBIER v. DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF KOREA Cite as 356 F.Supp.3d 30 (D.D.C. 2018) and severe injuries, were rendered quadriplegic, including partially lost vision and hearing, or were mistaken for dead,’ or downward in the face of ‘minor shrapnel injuries or minor injury from small-arms fire.’ ’’ Id. at 35–36 (quoting Valore v. Islamic Republic of Iran, 700 F.Supp.2d 52, 84 (D.D.C. 2010) ) (citation omitted and alteration adopted). An award of ‘‘$ 9 to $ 10 million in compensatory damages’’ has been appropriate ‘‘in cases where the victims were held as hostages and tortured for extensive periods of time,’’ Gill v. Islamic Republic of Iran, 249 F.Supp.3d 88, 103 (D.D.C. 2017) (collecting cases), and $ 10 million has been awarded to an estate when a victim was ‘‘subjected to mental and physical torture before being murdered by means involving the application of ‘significant force’ to his jaw,’’ Foley v. Syrian Arab Republic, 281 F.Supp.3d 153, 157 (D.D.C. 2017). [30] Similar to these cases, North Korea detained Otto for approximately 17.5 months, and North Korea is known to use extreme methods of torture to extract confessions from those it detains, including ‘‘water-boarding, being forced to squat for several hours, TTT being placed in a box too small to either stand or lie down in for long periods of time,’’ Collins Expert Decl. ¶ 28, ‘‘string[ing] prisoners up by their wrists from the bars in the cells just with their toes off the floor,’’ forced kneeling or squatting with an ‘‘iron ore wooden bar’’ behind the legs, and beatings, H’rg Tr. (Rough) at 92–93 (Expert David Hawk). North Korea also returned Otto to the United States with such severe brain injury that he was blind, deaf and completely unresponsive. F. W. Decl. ¶ 25; H’rg Tr. (Rough) at 33, 36 (F. W.). While the precise torture applied to Otto for this resulting injury is unknown, the blood flow to his brain was cut off for from five to twenty 57 minutes, Kanter Decl. ¶ 15, which could have been caused by ‘‘[w]ater-boarding,’’ ‘‘manipulating teeth with pliers,’’ ‘‘application of electric shock,’’ or suffocation. Collins Expert Decl. ¶ 31. Furthermore, Otto’s perfectly straight teeth had been rearranged to be misaligned, further indicative of the use of pliers or other tools to inflict that painful damage, plus the scar on his foot may have been caused by multiple applications of electrical shocks. Id. ¶ 30. Due to the duration of Otto’s detention, the public humiliation to which he was subjected with a publicized coerced ‘‘confession’’ and trial, and the severity of the torture to which he was subjected over such a long period of time, Otto’s estate is awarded $ 15 million in compensatory damages for pain and suffering. 4. Solatium (Fred and Cindy Warmbier) [31–33] Fred and Cindy Warmbier, in their individual capacities, seek solatium damages to compensate for the emotional distress they experienced as family members of victims of the attack. ‘‘District Court judges have discretion under 28 U.S.C. § 1608(e) to grant solatium awards based on the particular facts of each case, subject to abuse-of-discretion review for errors of law, clearly erroneous factual findings, and faulty reasoning.’’ Fraenkel, 892 F.3d at 351. Citing Judge Lamberth’s ‘‘seminal opinion explaining the origins and particulars of solatium damages’’ in Flatow v. Islamic Republic of Iran, the D.C. Circuit has explained that ‘‘ ‘[s]olatium is traditionally a compensatory damage which belongs to the individual heir personally for injury to the feelings and loss of decedent’s comfort and society,’ ’’ and was an award that ‘‘began as a remedy for the loss of a spouse or a parent,’’ but is now understood to include the loss of a child or a sibling, as well. Id. at 356 (quoting Flatow