Havana, Oct 20 (EFE). – Cuban graffiti artist Danilo “El Sexto” Maldonado, who has been on a hunger strike for four days, was freed Tuesday after being jailed for 10 months without trial in a prison outside of Havana, as he himself told EFE from his family home.

“I’m very happy to be here at home. What I want to do now is see my daughter and thank everybody who made such an outcry about my situation, because otherwise I’d still be locked up,” Maldonado told EFE.

Maldonado said he is in “good health,” though a little weak from the hunger strike he began last Friday as a protest against not being released on Oct. 15 as he had been promised.

As he told it, Tuesday morning he was waiting to be taken from his detention area to a punishment cell, a usual procedure for those who who make complaints inside the prison.

“An official came and told me to pick up my things, but instead of taking me to a cell, he took me outside the jail to the security office. They made me sign a paper, which was my release,” he said.

According to the document, Maldonado’s freedom is immediate and unconditional, so he will not be awaiting trial following his arrest last December for painting the names “Raul” and “Fidel” on the backs of two live pigs, as part of an artistic event called “Rebellion on the Farm” at a park downtown in the Cuban capital.

After signing the paper for his release, he was taken to his family home in an “official vehicle with tinted windows” and there he saw his mother, who “looked very happy but still nervous,” Maldonado said.

The street artist said he will continue protesting about “things that happen in Cuba” with his graffiti paintings and added that in the coming months he would like to leave the country to tell the world about his case and give thanks to the international community for the support he received.

Amnesty International, which considered El Sexto “a prisoner of conscience, deprived of his liberty as punishment for peacefully expressing his opinions,” had said earlier that “he must be released immediately and unconditionally and not be made to spend another second behind bars.”

Last Sept. 8, Maldonado began his first hunger strike to protest his imprisonment without trial, which he then ended on Oct. 1 after officials promised he would be freed unconditionally in 15 days if he called off the strike.

This year El Sexto won the International Vaclav Havel Prize for creative dissidence. EFE