Psychiatric tests for hunger-strike prisoner

Further psychiatric assessments are to be made of a Colombian prisoner on hunger strike who says he would rather die than serve his 11-year sentence for smuggling pounds 250,000 worth of cocaine into Britain. The move yesterday led a judge to adjourn an application by the Home Secretary, Kenneth Clarke, for High Court declarations that it would be lawful for the prison authorities not to feed 37-year-old Jesus Marquez-Neira, unless he consented. Mr Clarke's application was made on the basis of evidence that Neira, held at Belmarsh prison, south-east London, was sane and had the capacity to determine whether or not to eat.