UPDATED, Aug. 10, 2014 -- Alexander Fernandez Rico ended his hunger strike after prison officials told him he would be released in September, according to Hablemos Press news agency.
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Cuban political prisoner Alexander Fernandez Rico, who has been left blind and paralyzed by his ordeal in the Castro gulag, has been on hunger strike since July 30, according to the Hablemos Press news agency.
In an interview with the news agency, Fernandez, who is a prisoner at the Holguin Provincial Prison, listed his demands.
"I have declared a hunger strike demanding an end to the abuse, especially against the sick, and the cessation of human rights violations," he said.
Fernandez, who was left blind and paralyzed after an earlier hunger strike, also demand prison officials end their "torture" of him, referring to high security measures under which he is held.
"I also want to be transferred to another prison, where they do not not violate my rights.
"I'm ready to die if necessary," Fernandez said. "I am determined to take my protest to the end."
A human rights activist , Fernandez was arrested in April 2012, convicted of "disrespect" and sentenced to three years in prison after he started shouting anti-Castro slogans when he witnessed a police officer beating a passenger on a bus.
Fernandez was transferred to the Holguin prison in March 2013, after he participated in human rights protests at the Combinando del Este prison in Havana, according to Hablemos Press.
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