Venezuela lifts house arrest for embattled judge

Venezuela Friday lifted a house arrest order against a judge who became a human rights cause celebre following her arrest in 2009 on corruption charges. Lawyer Jose Amalio Graterol, who represents Judge Maria Afiuni, confirmed the decision in a post on Twitter. The rescinding of the order came a week after the attorney general requested the measure because Afiuni has kidney problems. That move by the attorney general came after Venezuela's foreign minister announced talks in Washington in the coming days on improving strained relations, and released an American filmmaker who had been detained as a spy. Afiuni has been under house arrest since 2011, after spending more than a year waiting to go on trial. The judge was arrested in 2009 after she granted bail to a jailed banker accused of fraud. He later fled the country. This infuriated then-president Hugo Chavez, who died in March of this year. At the time he said on television that Afiuni should be sentenced to 30 years in prison. Now, Afiuni has to report to the court every 15 days and is barred from leaving the country without permission or speaking to the press. Her trial began in November 2012. Afiuni has refused to attend, calling it rigged. A United Nations group said from the outset that her detention was arbitrary and called for her immediate release, and other human rights groups also denounced it as showing disregard for the independence of the judiciary.