A Vietnamese Catholic singer, jailed since 2011 for singing politically tinged songs, has been freed earlier this week.

Tran Vu Anh Binh was released four months before finishing his six-year term.

He told Radio Free Asia’s Vietnamese service that he felt happy to return to his home in Ho Chi Minh City.

“I feel elated, but now I am like a fish that has been on the shore for a long time,” he told RFA, “It’s back in the water now, but it certainly can’t swim as fast as it would like.”

Tran was sentenced in October 30, 2012, to six years in jail and two years of house arrest for producing “propaganda against the state” after allegedly contributing to a blog run by an overseas political group called Patriot Youth.

Tran has written songs protesting the imprisonment of political dissidents.