Venezuela has freed 533 election protest detainees, attorney general says

CARACAS - Venezuela's attorney general said in a statement on Monday that 533 people arrested for taking part in protests over a contested July election have been freed.

More than 2,000 people were arrested for taking part in protests after the contest, according to the government.

Electoral authorities and the country's supreme court have said President Nicolas Maduro won a third term, without releasing ballot box-level tallies of votes despite international requests to do so.

The country's opposition has released ballot box-level tallies it says show a resounding victory for its erstwhile candidate.

On Thursday the attorney general's office said some 328 election protesters had been released, including 103 released last week and 225 previously freed in November.

Rights group Foro Penal said it has only been able to verify 48 of the 103 releases.

Separately, the Venezuelan Prison Observatory NGO said on X that three protesters have died in custody, including two deaths in the last 72 hours.

Neither the Attorney General's Office nor the Ministry of Information immediately responded to requests for comment.

(Reporting by Vivian SequeraWriting by Oliver Griffin and Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Richard Chang)