Suspected Cuban Spy Goes on Hunger Strike

[Rose Siding]

MIAMI -- A Cuban exile in custody for nearly three years as a suspected spy has been on a hunger strike for the last month demanding to be released from immigration jail.

Juan Emilio Aboy, 44, has been held without criminal charges but faces immigration charges. Drinking only water to survive, he says he has lost 35 pounds and is becoming weak.

Nina Pruneda, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman in Miami, said the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Public Health Service are monitoring Aboy's health.

"I remind you that it is Mr. Aboy's choice not to eat," she told The Miami Herald.

Federal investigators claim Aboy worked as a courier for the Miami-based Wasp Network in the 1990s and was ordered to infiltrate the U.S. Southern Command, the military command for Latin America and the Caribbean.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-brf-cuban-espionage,0,3461257.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines