Tens of relatives of the Yemeni detainees at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, staged a sit-in before the Council of Ministers, demanding the government to do more to release the detainees.
The security forces, however, prevented other people who were on the way to the Freedom Square, where the protest was held to show solidarity with the detainees and their families.
After the sit-in, a symposium was held under the theme' ten years at Guantanamo, Yemeni stay without charges'.
The event was organized by HOOD and attended by Aljazeera's cameraman Sami Al-Haj, a former Sudanese Gitmo detainee who was released in 2008.
In his speech to the sit-inners, Al-Haj urged the Yemeni government to take quick and practical action to save the Yemeni detainees, who make up almost half of the remaining inmates at the U.S. jail.
The detainees of Guantanamo are being abused and brutally treated, with those responsible violating all human rights accords and principles, he said. "U.S. President Barack Obama deceived the nations when he said the jail and other U.S. illegal prisons will be closed and that detainees will be extradited to their countries".
President Obama has not fulfilled his promise because the suffering of detainees is continuing at Guantanamo, he said.
The remaining prisoners there, about 173 including about 80 Yemenis, were not released because the U.S. is not serious about their release and because of Yemen's negligence toward its people, he added.
At least 50 Yemeni detainees were acquitted of terrorism charges three years ago but they are still imprisoned, said Al-Haj, as he added that the U.S. administration once told a Belgian MP, a female human rights activist, that the Yemeni government was unwilling to receive the Yemeni detainees.
In the meantime, the U.S. is giving false excuses over the continuous detentions at Guantanamo including what the U.S. has claimed were Yemen's bad rehabilitation programme and fears detainees could be tortured by their governments, he added.
Al-Haj revealed that there were proposals to allow families to visit their relatives detained at Guantanamo including the possibility of living together at the Guantanamo Bay. But the proposals were turned down by the detainees, he said.
Other participants also delivered speeches in which they criticized Yemen's slowness in demanding the U.S. to release the Yemeni detainees and the U.S. decisions over the issue, including an Obama decision for transferring detainees to civil jails.
Lawyer Ahmed Arman said the U.S. had released Afghan detainees and those from other nationalities except Yemenis on grounds their country is unsafe.
"What the U.S. is doing regarding our detainees is untrue. We urge to release all Yemeni Gitmo detainees, especially those who are being detained without charges," he said.