El Sexto Facing Trial

El Sexto Facing Trial / 14ymedio
Posted on July 9, 2014

14ymedio, Havana, 9 July 2014 – The graffiti artist Danilo Maldonado,
known as "El Sexto" (The Sixth), has been in custody for five days
charged with "violation of domicile and injury" and will be prosecuted,
according to several friends and Cuban activists. Interviewed by the
newspaper just two weeks ago, the artist is being held incommunicado and
will be tried this week, according to reports from his family on Wednesday.

This newspaper was able to contact the photographer Orlando Luis Pardo
Lazo who, in speaking of El Sexto, said, "he has no attorney, no money,
no one left free in Cuba who is able to help him." The young man has
spent several years in the sights of the Cuban political police for a
series of graffiti and expositions where he questions the powers-that-be
and gives voice to outlawed civil society. His friends believe this
could be a "settling of accounts."

Several witnesses say that a domestic incident and a complaint from the
father of El Sexto's wife have "served as a reason for the police to
charge his and to remove him from the streets where he realizes his
art." There is still no official version of events and the authorities
are not providing clear answers to the several phone calls made to
investigate the situation of the detainee.

In late 2012, the writer Angel Santiesteban Prats was convicted on
similar charges and still remains an inmate of a forced work center on
the outskirts of Havana. As a general rule, people critical of the
government are not judged on political grounds but rather for "common
crimes" with the objective of reducing solidarity and international
pressure.

Source: El Sexto Facing Trial / 14ymedio | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/el-sexto-facing-trial-14ymedio/