24 Feb 2010

Cuba activist dies of hunger strike

A leading Cuban political activist jailed since 2003 has died after a lengthy hunger strike, officials in a Havana hospital have said.

Orlando Zapata Tamayo, 42, died on Tuesday afternoon after refusing to eat for 85 days, said a spokesman for the Hermanos Ameijeiras hospital.

orlando-zapata-tamayo

Zapata Tamayo was transferred to the hospital late on Monday from a smaller clinic near his prison in the eastern province of Camaguy.

Deemed a prisoner of conscience by human rights group Amnesty International, Zapata Tamayo had gone on a hunger strike to protest jail conditions he blamed for his deteriorating health.

Al Jazeera