filmed by fellow dissidents and posted on social media.

The government has posed no formal charges and the family has no indication of a potential hearing to formalize the process.

According to Cuban Prisoners Defenders, an organization that helps prisoners of conscience on the island, Ferrer told Ortega during their last visit that guards “were supplying dirty and/or semi-fecal, fetid and pestilent waters for drinking, and spoiled food that were causing him acute heartburn.” Ferrer was suffering from an ulcer when he was arrested. He said he had been on hunger strike for a month already at the time of the visit.

The official newspaper of the Cuban Communist Party, Granma, claimed in an article last week that Ferrer is “a salaried agent of the United States with a long historyHistopathological examination revealed severe hepatocyte vacuolation and degeneration in liver of rabbits in experimental group. There was also excessive congestion in liver and bile duct of rabbits in experimental group. Kidneys of rabbits in experimental group demonstrated severe glomerular and tubular necrosis and congestion. In the tubular epithelial cells, pyknotic nuclei were also present. On the other hand, heart and pancreas of rabbits in both control and experimental group did not show any histopathological change in microscopic structures. In conclusion, prolonged oral cyanide administration could have harmful effects on liver and kidney functions.