MATSQUI, B.C. (CP) - Mary Astaforoff, the 71-year-old Sons of Freedom Doukhobor whose prison hunger strike two years ago led to a pardon, has died in hospital after being rushed from a prison where she was on another hunger strike.

[Astaforoff] was sentenced last month to 10 years for setting a fire which destroyed four buildings at the Doukhobor museum in Castlegar, B.C.

MATSQUI, B.C. (CP) - Mary Astaforoff, the 71-year-old Sons of Freedom Doukhobor whose prison hunger strike two years ago led to a pardon, has died in hospital after being rushed from a prison where she was on another hunger strike.

A prison official said the cause of Sunday's death was not known.

Astaforoff and two other Freedomite women had been on a hunger strike protesting their arson sentences since Oct. 7.

Tom D'Aquino, a Correctional Service of Canada official, said Astaforoff was taken to hospital from Matsqui Institution, where she was serving a 10-year sentence for arson.

D'Aquino said Astaforoff had been drinking only fruit juices and water since the hunger strike began.

Astaforoff, along with Tina Zmaeff, 59, and Mary Braun, 63, were transferred this month to Matsqui from the Lower Mainland Regional Correctional Centre in the Vancouver suburb of Burnaby.

Astaforoff was sentenced last month to 10 years for setting a fire which destroyed four buildings at the Doukhobor museum in Castlegar, B.C.

Braun and Zmaeff were each sentenced to eight years in prison for the April burning of a house near Grand Forks, B.C.

Astaforoff caught the attention of then solicitor-general Robert Kaplan in October 1983.

Concerned about the failing health of Astaforoff, Zmaeff and Braun from another hunger strike, Kaplan decided to grant pardons.

Provincial prison officials said this month they would not force-feed the women because of a 1983 B.C. Court of Appeal ruling which said the court had no power to order provincial correction officials to force-feed Astaforoff.

There are three Doukhobor sects Sons of Freedom, Reformed and Orthodox.

The largest of the three, the 5,000-member Orthodox group, often has been the target of the Freedomite bombings and arson.