BEIJING, June 22 (Reuters) - A blind Chinese human rights activist who provided legal services for farmers has been severely beaten in jail by other prisoners on the orders of prison guards, according to Amnesty International.

Chen Guangcheng was sentenced to four years and three months in jail last year on charges critics say were concocted by officials angry at his exposure of forced late-term abortions.

Chen told his wife that when he refused to have his head shaved, "six other prisoners had pushed him to the floor, encouraged by prison guards, and hit and kicked him hard", Amnesty said in a statement received on Friday.

"He has begun a hunger strike in protest, refusing water as well as food. Amnesty International believes his life is in danger, and that he is at risk of further torture and ill-treatment," the group added.

"He said he was being punished for 'being disobedient' due to his insistence on filing an appeal to the provincial higher court," it said.

Amnesty, which considers him a prisoner of conscience, said Chen had also been denied medical access in jail.

Chen, who has been blind since childhood, is known as a self-taught "barefoot lawyer" for providing legal advice to peasants who say they have been victimised by official abuses.

Chinese activists have said the heavy sentence shows officials are clamping down on "rights defenders", a network of lawyers and activists seeking to expand freedoms through litigation and Internet-driven campaigns.

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