http://www.english.hadhramaut.info Yemeni GTMO detainees launch hunger strike [The Source: www.sabanews.net - 10/1/2009] Yemeni detainees at the Guantanamo Bay in Cuba have started a hunger strike in protest against maltreatment at the US-run prison and the lengthy custody. The state-run 26sep.net reported that the strike has been for 40 days and aimed at expressing refusal of the detainees' prolonged detention without trying them. According to information the website has obtained, the health condition of Abdul Salam al-Hilah, one of the Yemeni detainees at Guantanamo, has much deteriorated because of a hunger strike he launched for a long period and lack of proper medical care. The Yemeni detainees also complain that they are always maltreated and are allowed to call families only briefly. The International Red Crescent Committee has intervened lately to convince US authorities to allow Yemeni detainees at the prison phone their families. About 120 Yemeni detainees are held at the Guantanamo Bay. Yemen for many times renewed calls to release them, expressing readiness to receive its nationals and re-qualify them in the country. Yemen also renewed calls for the release of Sheikh Muhammad al-Moayad and his companion Muhammad Zayed detained in the US for more than five years on alleged terrorist financing charges. In 2005, the two were sentenced for 75 and 45 respectively. Finding that a Yemeni cleric and his assistant had been deprived of a fair trial because of errors by the presiding judge, a federal appeals panel in New York on October 8 overturned their convictions in a prominent terrorism case once hailed by the Bush administration as a significant blow to Al Qaeda. Many Yemenis along with others from different countries were arrested by the US after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. On November 27, Yemen received one of its GTMO detainees, the former Bin Laden's driver Hamdan Salim. Hamdan was sent to the Guantanamo Bay after he was arrested in 2001 in a battlefield in Afghanistan. he was tried under new military commission standards in August and was found charged with providing material support for terrorism. He received a 66 month jail sentence after his attorneys recognized his minor role, the decision which surprised US defense officials.