AL-MUKALLA: Yemeni army commander Faisal Rajab was released by the Houthis on Sunday after eight years in captivity.

In a ceremony attended by its leader and other senior officials in Sanaa, the Houthis released Maj. Gen. Rajab to a group of Yemeni tribal elders from Abyan, Shabwa and Al-Bayda who had traveled to the city to request his release.

Abdulkader Al-Murtada, head of the Houthis鈥� prisoner exchange committee, said the commander was pardoned 鈥渋n honor鈥� of the elders.

Rajab, along with former defense minister Mohammed Mahmoud Al-Subaihy and former intelligence chief Nasser Mansour Hadi, was captured near Al-Anad military base in Lahj province in March 2015. The men had been part of an effort to gather military forces in the area to fend off the Houthis鈥� expansion across southern provinces.

Al-Subaihy and Hadi were among 900 captives freed two weeks ago during a second prisoner exchange between the warring factions but Rajab was not given his freedom and his family was not allowed to visit him.

Hans Grundberg, the UN鈥檚 special envoy for Yemen, hailed Rajab鈥檚 release and urged both sides to strive for the release of all detainees in accordance with their pledges under the UN-brokered Stockholm Agreement.

鈥淚 welcome the unilateral initiative by Ansar Allah to release GEN Faisal Rajab,鈥� he said on Twitter. 鈥淚 appeal to all parties to build on the progress achieved & intensify the efforts to release all detainees, based on the 鈥淎ll for all鈥� principle as stipulated in the Stockholm Agreement.鈥�

Majed Fadhail, a member of the Yemeni government involved in the prisoner exchange talks, also welcomed Rajab鈥檚 release.

鈥淲e are relieved to hear that Maj. Gen. Faisal Rajab has been released. We hope that all prisoners and detainees are released from these criminal rebel militias鈥� prisons and detention facilities,鈥� he said on Twitter.

But some Yemeni activists and journalists described Rajab鈥檚 release as a charade designed to improve the militia鈥檚 image, and urged the Houthis to release hundreds of other prisoners and forcibly disappeared people, including politician Mohammed Qahtan.

Meanwhile, Yemen鈥檚 Information Minister Muammar Al-Eryani said that two of the four journalists freed in the last prisoner exchange were now in hospital.

Tawfiq Al-Mansouri and Harith Hamid were taken to a hospital in the central city of Marib to be treated for health problems they contracted while being detained by the Houthis. They, and hundreds of other detainees, had been subjected to 鈥渂arbaric psychological and physical torture,鈥� he said.

Al-Mansouri and Hamid were among nine journalists abducted from a hotel in Sanaa in 2015 and sentenced to execution by a Houthi court.

Soon after his release, Al-Mansouri told reporters that Al-Murtada had personally abused him in jail, an accusation the Houthi official disputed.