**Several Cuban dissidents say they will refuse food in protest at the death earlier this week of a jailed government opponent.**Opposition group the Cuban Commission for Human Rights said four jailed dissidents would reject solid food.
Another anti-government activist, who is not in jail, has said he is also giving up food and drink.
Orlando Zapata Tamayo died on Tuesday in a hospital in the capital Havana after a hunger strike of 85 days.
His death triggered international protests and Cuban President Raul Castro issued an expression of regret.
The four jailed dissidents planning to begin a hunger strike are Eduardo Diaz Fleitas, Diosdado Gonzalez Marrero, Nelson Molinet Espino and Fidel Suarez Cruz, the commission said.
Guillermo Farinas, an activist and journalist who lives in the city of Santa Clara, has said he is already refusing food and is experiencing headaches as a result.
‘Tribute’
“The reason for my [hunger] strike is so that the government will not cause the murders of political prisoners as it happened with Zapata,” Mr Farinas told Spanish news agency Efe by telephone.
“It is also a tribute to him,” he added.
Mr Farinas has held more than 20 hunger strikes since 1995.
Zapata, who was 42, was arrested in 2003 in a crackdown on opposition activists and was initially jailed for three years.
However, this was increased to 25 years in subsequent trials after he was charged with disobedience and disorder in a penal establishment, London-based rights group Amnesty International said.
Amnesty, which considered Zapata a “prisoner of conscience”, said “a full investigation must be carried out to establish whether ill-treatment may have played a part” in his death.
President Castro said he “lamented” Zapata’s death but insisted no-one on the island had been tortured.
The US said it highlighted “the injustice of Cuba’s holding more than 200 political prisoners” and said they should be released “without delay”.
The Cuban government says it holds no political prisoners.