[Mary Braun], 66, and Zmaeff, 62, are serving eight-year sentences for a 1985 arson near Castlegar. Braun was paroled last spring, but was returned to prison in the summer because "there was an indication she would breach the conditions of her parole," corrections spokesman Dianne Brown said Wednesday.

Two Freedomite Doukhobor women on the 58th day of a hunger strike today are very dehydrated and barely conscious in the health unit at Matsqui prison, a corrections official has confirmed.

And friends and relatives of Mary Braun and Tina Zmaeff say they fear this time the women will only allow death to end their fast unless they are freed.

Doctors say it's impossible to predict how long someone can go without food. Two years ago, 71-year-old Freedomite Mary Astaforoff died after fasting for 54 days with Braun and Zmaeff. Irish Republican Army supporter Bobby Sands died in 1981 in the Maze Prison after 66 days without food.

"I guess they are willing to die for their Christian principles," friend Marilyn Smoch said from Nelson. "I love those women so much. It's hard."

Smoch quoted from a 1982 letter Braun sent the attorney general's department, in which she said: "The fire belongs to all Doukhobors."

Freedomites believe fire can be used for a religious cleansing of material wealth and both women have lengthy criminal records for arson.

Braun, 66, and Zmaeff, 62, are serving eight-year sentences for a 1985 arson near Castlegar. Braun was paroled last spring, but was returned to prison in the summer because "there was an indication she would breach the conditions of her parole," corrections spokesman Dianne Brown said Wednesday.

"It was in her best interests and the best interests of the community that she be returned to Matsqui," Brown said, though she couldn't provide details of what evidence parole officials had against Braun.

Corrections Canada's policy is not to force-feed prisoners, Brown said.