Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez was released from prison early Saturday and placed under house arrest amid intensifying pressure on the embattled leftist government of Nicolas Maduro.

“Leopoldo Lopez is at his home in Caracas with (wife) Lilian and his children,” Lopez’s Spanish lawyer Javier Cremades said in Madrid. “He is not yet free but under house arrest. He was released at dawn.”

Lopez, leader of the Voluntad Popular (Popular Will) party, had been held for three and a half years at a military prison for allegedly “inciting violence” during anti-government protests in 2014.

His release from prison has been a key demand of Venezuela’s opposition and the international community, amid an intensifying political confrontation aimed at forcing Maduro to hold early elections.

The Supreme Court on its twitter account cited “health reasons” for the order moving Lopez to house arrest, which was signed on Friday by court president Maikel Moreno.

It said the move was “a humanitarian measure in keeping with law”.

Lopez’ wife had Friday night been able to spend an hour visiting her husband in his cell at Ramo Verde prison just outside Caracas.

Lopez, 46, the former mayor of a Caracas municipality, has emerged as a symbol of resistance to the government as Venezuela has spiralled into a severe economic and political crisis.

At least 91 people have died in three months of street clashes between protesters and police, troops and government loyalists.

On Wednesday, pro-government militants wielding sticks and pipes stormed the grounds of the opposition-held National Assembly and beat lawmakers, injuring at least five at the only state institution that the opposition nominally controls.

Maduro condemned the violence and said he had ordered an investigation.