Leading Cuban political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo has died in hospital after 85 days on hunger strike, opposition¹ sources say.

古巴反对派消息称，政治犯奥兰多·萨帕塔·塔马约经历85天的绝食抗议之后，日前在医院逝世。

Mr Zapata (second left) was arrested in 2003 with more than 70 others

Mr Zapata, 42, had been admitted to Havana's Hermanos Ameijeiras hospital after his condition deteriorated²（恶化） .

Amnesty International declared him a prisoner of conscience（政治犯） after his arrest in March 2003 in a crackdown（制裁，镇压） on opposition groups.

He had been calling for the release of political prisoners.

He died between 1530 and 1600 local time (2030-2100 GMT) on Tuesday, Efe（埃菲社） news agency reports.

'Murdered'

His death marks the first time in nearly 40 years a Cuban activist³ starved himself to death to protest against government abuses.

His mother, Reina Luisa Tamayo, told the Miami newspaper El Nuevo Herald⁴ by telephone that her son had been "murdered" by Cuba's authorities.

"They managed to do what they wanted," she said. "They ended the life of a fighter for human rights.''

According to the paper, the last political prisoner to die on hunger strike in Cuba was Pedro Luis Boitel, a poet and student leader, who died in 1972.

Cuba's illegal but tolerated（可接纳的） Human Rights Commission says there are about 200 political prisoners still held in Cuba, about one-third less than when Raul Castro took over as president from his brother Fidel.

But if anything harassment⁵（烦恼，骚扰） of dissidents（持不同政见者） has increased over the past year, the group says.

Cuba designates prisoners of conscience as mercenaries（雇佣兵） sympathetic to（赞同，支持） the United States.