Cuba's leader Raul Castro "laments" the death of a detained activist who had been on hunger strike for nearly three months, its foreign ministry says.
It marks a rare expression of sorrow by the country's leadership, often rebuked over its human rights record.
Orlando Zapata Tamayo died in hospital in Havana on Tuesday, 85 days after he began refusing food, sparking criticism of Havana from the US and EU countries.
The 42-year-old was arrested in 2003 in an crackdown on opposition activists.
But the Cuban president said neither Mr Tamayo nor anyone else on the island had been tortured.
Mr Zapata, who was declared a "prisoner of conscience" by Amnesty International, had been refusing food in protest at jail conditions and died in the capital's Hermanos Ameijeiras hospital.
Amnesty said "a full investigation must be carried out to establish whether ill-treatment may have played a part" in his death.
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