An American Taken Prisoner By North Korea In 2010 Was Found Burning To Death In San Diego

An American man who was imprisoned for nine months in North Korea had mysteriosly burned to death in San Diego.

According to San Diego Union Tribune, Ajialon Mahli Gomes was found ablaze in a dirt field off the Pacific Highway around 11.30pm last friday. an off-duty California Highway Patrol officer spotted Gomes on fire, running, then collapsing, San Diego Police homicide Lieutenany Todd Griffin said on tuesday. Firefighters and police responded to his calls, but Gomes was pronoused dead at the scene, the fox 5 San Diego Tv station reported.

A preliminary investigation into the death showed that the death was "not a homocide but rather in accidental death or suicide," Griffin added. Police are still investigating the cause of the fire.

Gomes was arrested in January 2010 after crossing into North Korea from China, by walking through a frozen stretch of the Tumen River, according to his memoir, "Violence and Humanlty."

Pyongyang then accused the American, who was 30 at the time, of illegally crossing its border with china.

They also said he had commited an unspecified "hostile act," and April 2010 sentenced him to eight years of hard labour and a fine of about $700,000 at that time.

He remained detained for nine months until former president Jimmy Carter flew to North Koria and negotiated his release in late August that year.