Cuban Lifer on Hunger Strike

HAVANA TIMES, May 16 — Leandro Cerezo Sirut, sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of two soldiers and attempted hijacking of a Cuban airliner in 2007, went on a hunger strike on May 6 after demanding improved prison conditions.

His mother, Maria Victoria Sirut Reyes, said, “On Tuesday [May 8] I was able to see him. He told me that he had been isolated more than before as a form of punishment.”

The inmate, 24, is demanding personal living improvements such as a TV, books and a larger cell, the news note indicates.

Cerezo Sirut was arrested at the Havana International Airport when he and four other armed soldiers — all 19 years of age — committed the murders while trying to leave the island illegally.