Venezuelan prosecutor's office requests house arrest for jailed opposition mayor

The Venezuelan Public Prosecutor's Office requested Friday that jailed opposition leader and mayor of Caracas Antonio Ledezma be granted house arrest due to health problems.

The office said in a statement that it had asked a Caracas court to allow Ledezma out in order to undergo an operation in a hospital and then recover at home.

This comes less than a month after Ledezma was charged with conspiracy in a coup attempt to topple President Nicolas Maduro's government.

The mayor's wife Mitzy Capriles confirmed the news and said three doctors examined him in custody on Friday.

"The three doctors agree on a hernia diagnosis, and the need for surgical treatment as soon as possible," she said in a Twitter post.

Since Ledezma was jailed, his hernia ailment had intensified for which he was already treated with a similar surgery in May of 2014, according to local media.

Ledezma, 59, a lawyer and hardline opposition leader who is the metropolitan mayor of Caracas, was jailed in February with accusations of conspiring to overthrow Maduro's socialist government.

Along with fellow opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, detained last year for his role in protests that brought months of violence and caused 43 deaths, Ledezma is the highest-profile politician jailed in Venezuela. Endi