Venezuelan authorities end house arrest of judge
The Venezuelan authorities have ended the house arrest of a judge held on corruption charges since 2009, the BBC reports.
A lawyer for Maria Lourdes Afiuni said a court in Caracas rescinded the detention order on health grounds after a request from the attorney general.
The 50-year-old judge has reportedly been suffering kidney problems.
She has been on trial since November for corruption, abuse of authority and aiding an inmate's escape, but has dismissed proceedings as rigged.
Opposition leaders consider her to be Venezuela's highest-profile political prisoner, while human rights groups and international organisations have called her detention arbitrary and demanded her release.
Ms Afiuni was arrested on the day she authorised the conditional release of banker Eligio Cedeno who had spent almost three years in prison awaiting trial - a year longer than Venezuelan law generally permitted. Mr Cedeno later fled the country.