In a press release issued on 3 June, the Minister declared that no evidence against the detainees had been given to the General Prosecutor. She said: "According to Yemeni legislation, anyone who spends more than 6 months in prison without any evidence must be released. Despite this, these young revolutionaries are still detained after 2 years, in spite of the decision of national reconciliation taken by the government and the presidential orders for their release." Machhour further stated that other young men who were also arbitrarily detained were currently on hunger strike (19 at Hajja Prison and 6 at Hodeidah Prison).

On 2 June, the Minister declared that these human rights activists were very brave and that she was deeply concerned by the "health condition of these detainees who started a hunger strike 3 weeks ago after 2 years of arbitrary detention." She added that "this detention is a blatant violation of human rights norms, Yemeni legislation and international treaties." Machhour stressed again her deep concern about the mental and physical consequences the hunger strike would have on the young detainees especially that those were the results of the refusal to implement the Presidential order No. 108/2012, based on executive mechanisms of the initiative of the GCC and Human Rights Council's resolutions 2051 and 2014.

The Minister regretted that the implementation of the decision of the release had been delayed while criticizing the weakness of the argumentation given to justify the illegal detention of these men. She said that their arrest and detention, without any evidence, nor legal ground, could be considered as acts of reprisals against these young revolutionaries who dared to dream of a new Yemen where justice, liberty and respect for human rights would be a reality and who had contributed to bring about this change. While asking again for the release of all these detainees and their compensation for the prejudice, the persecution and disappearance, she firmly condemned anyone who would try to ignore the presidential orders.

During the three weeks prior the release, demonstrations were organized in Sanaa by hundreds of people – the detainees' relatives and human rights activists - to demand the immediate release of the detainees and denounce the injustice they suffered. They exclaimed that whereas the detainees were held as a result of their participation in peaceful demonstrations, the former president, who was responsible for violent repression against regime opponents and numerous human rights violations, benefited from total impunity.

In a letter recently published by the media, the detainees said they had "decided to leave the prison, dead or alive." They also asked for their immediate release as well as an investigation into the causes of their arrest and the human rights violations that they suffered in detention: enforced disappearance for 8 months and acts of torture. They declared that the General Prosecutor treated them as enemies and that "he had failed to protect their rights, as stated in Yemeni constitution and legislation, by refusing to implement the presidential order."

Finally, in this letter, the detainees asked for "fair compensation for the suffering they endured", as well as a quick solution for their co-detainees and friends, also 'revolutionaries', whose whereabouts remain unknown to this date."

They sent the following message to their fellow detainees as well as "all free human beings of Yemen and this world":

"All roads are blocked. When a ray of hope appears, it immediately becomes a mirage. Despite the fall of the regime's symbols against which we stood up, we are still behind bars. We are being oppressed and humiliated while the murderers of the young demonstrators and those who have plundered the revolution gather around a table to draw the Yemen of tomorrow!!"