Almotamar.net - Yemeni Human Rights Ministry dispatched Wednesday a memorandum to the general prosecutor demanding the release of 40 prisoners from the Central Prison in Sana'a. Those prisoners have been detained as hostages under orders of sheiks and influential personalities.

A source at the ministry told almotamar.net that disclosure of hostage prisoners came during a visit to the Central Prison last week made by the Minister for Human Rights Huda Al-Ban and jurists from the ministry for the purpose of seeing conditions of prisoners, the source pointed out that the visit disclosed the presence of 40 prisoners retained as hostages by sheikhs and 30 of them have been detained under requests by sheikh in Yemen over their relatives' commitment of killing crimes, vengeance and other cases.

The source clarified that some prisoners have been held for more than ten years and have not been tried until now. He said the Human Rights Ministry asked last week to meet the general prosecutor to discuss cases of prison inmates imprisoned by illegal ways and to release them in addition to solving problems of insolvent prisoners. But the meeting was postponed to this week, the source said.