BBC News Online: World: Americas

Three Cuban dissidents on hunger strike in hospital

Three Cuban dissidents on hunger strike have been taken to hospital, one of them seriously ill.

The three, along with three other protesters, have been refusing solid food for more than seventy-five days.

They're all members of an illegal opposition party, the Party for Human Rights, which is campaigning for multi-party democracy in Cuba.

The dissidents were charged in October and given prison terms for robbing a doctor's surgery -- an offence they all deny.

All six come from the town of Santa Clara, where Pope John Paul is due to give his first mass in Cuba next month.

They say they were arrested to stop them speaking out during his visit.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service