CARACAS – Venezuela’s opposition leader Leopoldo López has been released from prison after serving three years and is now back under house arrest.
What a moment. Leopoldo Lopez appears to ecstatic crowd after being granted house arrest pic.twitter.com/GZj4dPvxh3
— Alexandra Ulmer (@AlexandraUlmer) July 8, 2017
Lopez was given a 14 year sentence in September 2015 after three people died in a demonstration in the capital Caracas in February 2015.
The Supreme Court issued a statement on Saturday, saying he was released from penal custody because of health concerns.
In May President Nicolas Maduro’s leftist government, facing a wave of major opposition protests since April, issued a short “proof of life” video after reports surfaced that Lopez was in ill-health.
After three months of anti-government unrest that has killed at least 90 people, Maduro called for the creation of a new super-body Constituent Assembly, with powers to reform the national charter and supersede other institutions, in an election he says will bring peace.
But many Venezuelans who are angry with the government are planning to boycott the vote on July 30.
