Saudi Arabia 'detaining Jordanian journalist for sympathy with Hamas'

Saudi authorities have detained a Jordanian journalist for two months without charge in the latest attack on press freedom in the country, the Jordanian Press Association said on Tuesday.

The association said in a statement that Abdel Rahman Farhaneh has been detained in the kingdom, without revealing the circumstances around the arrest.

The statement said that Farhaneh's family reported the arrest on Tuesday and that the Jordanian Embassy in Riyadh is following the case.

Earlier on Tuesday, Jordanian journalist Helmi al-Asmar said in an online statement that the 63-year-old writer for Jordanian pro-Islamist daily Assabeel was arrested in the eastern city of Dammam.

"Despite his family attempting to ask about him and visit... they have been denied by the security agencies," Asmar said.

"Of course he has not been charged and his location and the condition of his health are unknown," he added.

Saudi dissident cleric Saeed bin Nasser said that Farhaneh was arrested over his "support" for Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, which has had strained relations with Riyadh, according to news website Arabi21.

Saudi Arabia is one of the world's worst jailers of journalists, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, with 16 journalists currently behind bars for their work.

Riyadh slipped in its rank in the 2019 World Press Freedom Index - the first to be released since the gruesome state-sanctioned murder of columnist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.