Via AFP:

Cuban hunger-striker's mum detained

The mother of a Cuban political prisoner who died on hunger strike in February says she and a group of relatives were detained by police after visiting her son's grave.

Reina Luisa Tamayo told AFP on Sunday police detained them at the cemetery in the town of Banes, 840km east of Havana, where her son Orlando Zapata is buried.

"They drove me and my granddaughter to the police station in Banes, and held me for an hour-and-a-half," she said by telephone.

Another eight relatives who had gone to the cemetery with her were put on a bus to the capital of Holguin, "and we don't know where they are", she said.

She said police acted in a violent manner and only returned her mobile phone and camera after erasing the contents.

Zapata, imprisoned in a 2003 crackdown on dissidents, died on February 23 after an 85 day hunger strike that brought international condemnation of the Cuban government.

Tamayo has been waiting for a week for her son's remains to be exhumed, under an agreement negotiated by the Catholic church, so she can emigrate with them to the United States.