CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela’s best-known jailed opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez celebrated a surprise return to his family after being granted house arrest on Saturday with a promise to fight on following three years’ imprisonment for leading anti-government protests.

Hours after his pre-dawn transfer from the Ramo Verde military jail, Lopez appeared over a wall of his Caracas house, waving the Venezuelan flag and punching the air before a crowd of supporters who cheered and cried upon seeing him.

In a message released by his party, the 46-year-old hardliner urged opposition supporters to continue street protests against President Nicolas Maduro, which are in their fourth month and have led to at least 90 deaths.

“If maintaining my fight for freedom means running the risk of returning to a cell in Ramo Verde, I am more than happy to take it,” he said in the message read by Freddy Guevara, the No. 2 in Lopez’s Popular Will party.

“Today, I am a prisoner in my house, but so are the Venezuelan people. What kept me going in the toughest days was knowing that whatever suffering I endured was nothing compared to our people.”

Lopez’s release, aided by foreign pressure, gave some rare cheer to Venezuela’s opposition who have otherwise seen Maduro give few concessions in their demands for freedom of activists, general elections and fixes for an economic crisis.

“Despite being under house arrest, he showed his face to the country,” said Maria Garcia, 36, a business consultant, outside his house. “What we need to do now is stay in the street, because we need to achieve not just the freedom of Leopoldo but also the freedom of the Venezuelan people.”

Fresh opposition street rallies were planned for Sunday.

PRESIDENTIAL AMBITION

A photogenic, Harvard-educated former mayor and economist, Lopez would likely be a popular opposition presidential candidate if able to run in any future vote.

He is serving a sentence of nearly 14 years.

While the socialist Maduro may be calculating Lopez’s return home will ease pressure on him, opposition leaders presented it as a triumph for their protest strategy and a sign the government was caving.

It was not clear, however, how Lopez’s presence at home could materially weaken Maduro, who is plowing ahead with a plan to create a parliamentary superbody that will be able to rewrite the constitution and even dissolve state institutions.

The opposition has long called Lopez a political prisoner, and leaders around the world, including U.S. President Donald Trump, had been pressing for his full freedom.

The U.S. State Department called the decision a “significant step in the right direction,” while urging full freedom for Lopez and another 400 opposition prisoners.

Maduro for years opposed measures to release Lopez, describing him as a dangerous terrorist who sought to overthrow him through street violence. Government supporters also often note Lopez’s role in a short-lived 2002 coup against the late former leader Hugo Chavez when he helped arrest a minister.

On Saturday, Maduro extended an olive branch of sorts.

“I as head of state accept the (Supreme Court’s) decision, and what’s more, I support the decision. And you all know my absolute and profound differences with LL,” Maduro said, referring to Lopez only by his initials.

Venezuela's opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, who has been granted house arrest after more than three years in jail, salutes supporters, in Caracas, Venezuela July 8, 2017. REUTERS/Andres Martinez Casares

“God willing this decision ... will be understood, and Mr. LL, after almost four years in Ramo Verde, will give a message of rectification and peace.”

Venezuela’s Supreme Court said Lopez had been given the measure due to health problems, but his family countered that he is in good shape and he looked robust as he waved enthusiastically.

The release was aided in part by the involvement of former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who has for years maintained talks with the Maduro government, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and Venezuelan officials said.

At Maduro’s behest, Venezuela on July 30 will elect a controversial Constituent Assembly.

The opposition says that is a power grab meant to keep the socialists in office and annul the existing opposition-controlled legislature against the will of the people.

SUPPORTERS THRILLED

Several hundred supporters rallied through the day outside Lopez’s home in the upscale Caracas neighborhood of Los Palos Grandes, some wearing shirts emblazoned with Lopez’s face.

They waved Venezuela’s flag, chanted slogans and set off fireworks to celebrate.

“I think this is the first day of the transition,” said Maria Antonieta Witzka, 57, a physical therapist. “The government is realizing that we are the majority.”

Though a hero to many, Lopez has also faced criticism from some within the opposition for at times being headstrong and domineering. He founded the Popular Will party after splitting with the First Justice party that he had also helped found.

Slideshow (16 Images)

Though Lopez had publicly called for peaceful resistance to Maduro in 2014 and was behind bars during most of the unrest that year which killed 43 people, prosecutors said his speeches sent subliminal messages and constituted a call to violence.

One of the prosecutors who led the case later fled the country and said the proceeding had been a mockery of justice.

Lopez is the scion of wealthy families and a direct descendant of the sister of Latin American independence hero Simon Bolivar as well as of Venezuela’s first president, Cristobal Mendoza.

Pro-government critics paint him as a dangerous radical in the pocket of Venezuela’s wealthy elite and the U.S. government.</s>Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro called for a message of “peace and rectification” from Leopoldo Lopez, just hours after the freed dissident’s release following more than three years in prison.

Maduro, who on Saturday said he supports the decision by the Supreme Court to move Lopez from prison and place him under house arrest instead, said during a nationally televised address that he hopes the move would provide the basis for reconciliation “because the nation wants peace.”

Venezuela’s most prominent political prisoner, Lopez vowed Saturday to continue his fight for freedom after being released from jail and placed under house arrest. His surprise release came amid intensifying pressure on the embattled leftist government of Maduro, with a rising toll of death and destruction from three months of non-stop street protests.

Lopez, leader of the Voluntad Popular (Popular Will) party and a symbol of resistance to the Maduro government, emerged hours after his release from prison looking fit and happy. He pumped his fist in the air, unfurled the Venezuelan flag and told a crowd of supporters who had gathered outside: “Yes, we can!”

For all the latest World News, download Indian Express App</s>Jailed Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo López was moved from the military jail to house arrest Saturday morning in a surprise move.</s>Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez has been granted house arrest after more than three years in jail, opposition legislator Henry Ramos said via Twitter on Saturday.

CARACAS: Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez has been granted house arrest after more than three years in jail, opposition legislator Henry Ramos said via Twitter on Saturday.

Lopez's family and leaders of his political party Popular Will were not immediately available to comment.</s>Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo López, who's seen as a symbol of anti-government protests, has been released from prison and put under house arrest, the country’s Supreme Court confirmed Saturday.

López has been in jail since 2014 serving a 13-year sentence for his role in widespread protests that same year that claimed more than 40 lives. Human rights groups said the closed-door trial was a sham.

In a brief statement, Venezuela’s Supreme Court said it had decided to transfer López after detecting “irregularities” in his case and due to “information received about the health of the political leader.”

López's transfer was confirmed by Javier Cremadas, one of López’s lawyers, and several prominent opposition leaders including former National Assembly President Henry Ramos Allup.

“Leopoldo López is at home in Caracas with Lilian and his children,” Cremada wrote on Twitter. “He’s still not free, he’s under house arrest. They moved him this morning.”

In previous weeks, López had said he would not accept house arrest until all the other political prisoners had been released.

Read more at our news partner, the Miami Herald.</s>Venezuelan Opposition Leader Released From Prison, Placed Under House Arrest

Prominent Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez has been released from prison and put on house arrest after spending three years behind bars for leading anti-government protests.</s>CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez salutes supporters outside home after being sent from prison to house arrest.</s>Opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez reaches out to greet supporters as he arrives to the prosecutor's office in 2013.

MEXICO CITY, Mexico — After more than three years in jail, Venezuela’s most prominent jailed opposition leader was granted house arrest on Saturday in the midst of intensifying political violence in the country.

The Supreme Court cited health concerns and administrative irregularities in its decision to allow Leopoldo López to serve out the rest of his sentence of 13 years and nine months from home, which it called a “humanitarian measure.”

"To give Leopoldo López house arrest indicates how desperate and divided they are, a show of weakness from a cornered regime," wrote Javier Cremades, López's lawyer, on Twitter.

Venezuela's protracted political crisis, pitting the embattled socialist government against an increasingly unified opposition bloc, has deepened in recent months, during which nearly 100 people have been killed at the site of regular protests. This week, pro-government demonstrators stormed the opposition-controlled Congress, injuring five lawmakers and several reporters.

The oil-rich country is on edge as a vote to determine the members of a citizens assembly to rewrite the constitution is expected on July 30. The opposition, which say President Nicolás Maduro's initiative is rigged in favor of the state, is planning to hold a referendum against it on July 16.

"What we cannot do with votes we would have to do with weapons," Maduro warned during a televised appearance last month.

Fractures within the government have been growing in recent months. Attorney General Luisa Ortega has urged Venezuelans to reject the rewrite; according to Reuters, at least 123 soldiers have been detained since April on charges of treason and rebellion, among others.

Shortages of medicines and basic food staples, triple-digit-inflation, and a homicide crisis have battered the South American nation. Countries around the region have put in a concerted effort to pressure Venezuela's government to restore democracy.

López has become a rallying crying for the opposition, which has demanded the release of all political prisoners. The photogenic 46-year-old is convicted of inciting violence during the 2014 street protests in Venezuela, in which 43 people were killed.

Maduro frequently refers to López as the "Monster of Ramo Verde," using the name of the military jail where he was held.

Lilian Tintori, López's wife, has met with leaders around the world, asking them for to support his release. In February, she met with President Donald Trump and Senator Marco Rubio at the White House.

In June, Tintori said López would not accept serving out his sentence at home until the last of the political prisoners were released from jail.

There are 433 political prisoners in the country, according to Foro Penal Venezolano, a human rights group.</s>The Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo López was transferred to house arrest Saturday after spending more than three years in a military prison.

The supreme court said in a statement that it had granted López the “humanitarian measures” for health reasons and “serious signs of irregularities” in the handling of the case that it did not specify.

Outside López’s house in the capital, Caracas, a few dozen supporters arrived carrying Venezuelan flags to celebrate along with journalists looking for information about whether the transfer may have been part of a larger deal between the opposition and President Nicolás Maduro’s government.

The opposition has been demanding the release of dozens of activists it considers political prisoners, the most prominent being López, in order to initiate talks aimed at resolving a political crisis that has left more than 90 people dead and hundreds injured.

“We spoke for like 40 minutes. He’s hugging his children, he’s with his wife ... I’m sure they are celebrating,” López’s father, who shares his son’s name, said from exile in Spain. He said in recent days López had been isolated in his prison cell without food and attributed his son’s transfer to the considerable international pressure on Maduro’s government.

“He told me himself recently: Dad, it’s always darkest right before the break of dawn,” he added.

López, 46, was sentenced in 2015 to nearly 14 years in prison for inciting violence during anti-government protests in which three people died and dozens were wounded.

Venezuela has been rocked by months of near-daily protests again this year, fueled by widespread discontent over shortages of basic goods, galloping inflation and allegations that Maduro is undermining democracy in the country.

The Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, broke the news of López’s pre-dawn transfer in a message posted on Twitter. His predecessor, José Luiz Rodriguez Zapatero, has been traveling back and forth to Venezuela for months trying to broker a deal on jailed opposition leaders and jumpstart a dialogue between the government and opposition. He was in Caracas as recently as last week.

The former Colombian president Ernesto Samper, who had been working with Zapatero on some sort of humanitarian release for Lopez, praised the “positive gesture” by the government, predicting it would open a space for dialogue across Venezuela’s bitter political divide so that in the coming months there could be transparent, democratic elections.

There has been much speculation about López’s health since several people, including the Florida senator Marco Rubio, reported in early May that he had been rushed to a hospital in very serious condition. The report was later denied by the government, which released video of López saying he was alive and well.

But more recently, supporters have stepped up complaints that López was being tortured and punished for supporting the street protests against Maduro – claims that the government has denied. Lopez’s party said he had not been allowed to see his lawyers for 90 days and had been in solitary confinement for the last 32 days.

Lopez’s lawyer in Spain, Javier Cremades, said the terms of López’s release meant he would be allowed to serve out his sentence at home and could not leave.

“It is a gesture of weakness of the Maduro regime and of the opposition’s strength,” Cremades said. “It is a step forward, and very positive news.”

The lawmaker Gaby Arellano of López’s Popular Will party said his release represented “the end of the dictatorship”.

Foreign governments and human rights groups have criticized López’s detention as politically motivated. A Venezuelan prosecutor on the case who later sought asylum in the United States has said he was ordered by the government to arrest López despite a lack of evidence.

Lilian Tintori, López’s wife, has campaigned in Venezuela and abroad to try to win freedom for her husband.

In February, she met with Donald Trump in the White House. Trump tweeted a photo of the Oval Office encounter and called for López to be released “immediately”.

“It gives us great pleasure that Leopoldo López is at his home with his family!” said Henrique Capriles, another opposition leader, via Twitter. “He must be given his full freedom, like all the political prisoners!”</s>Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, whose imprisonment has been a rallying cry for anti-regime demonstrators, has been released to house arrest because of health concerns, the nation’s Supreme Court said Saturday morning.
Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo López, leader of the Popular Will party, is granted house arrest after over three years of imprisonment.