JEDDAH: Two Saudi citizens have accused a Jordanian police officer in Aqaba of detaining them for five days without probable cause and physically assaulting them after they went to file a complaint about being robbed.

Saeed Al-Qurani said that the incident took place when he and a friend went shopping in the seaside city and took a lift with a man outside a bank, intending to go to their hotel, a local publication reported recently.

However, the man pulled out a gun and robbed them of SR5,248 in Jordanian dinars, and then dropped them off on the side of a street, Al-Qurani claimed. He said that when they saw a police patrol car nearby they wanted to report the robbery, but was told that they should do so at a police station.

However, he claimed things went wrong when they arrived at the police station and spoke to an officer on duty. "The police officer said to us: 'You Saudis are making a mess in the country.' He then cuffed and hit us and dragged us to a cell as if we were the culprits," claimed Al-Qurani.

He said they were held at the station for two days. He claimed he had pain in his kidneys because of the lack of food and "violent" manner in which he had been treated, and was taken twice to a local hospital.

He said that when they appeared in court the following day, they could not make bail of about SR58 because the police had taken their money for safekeeping. The case was then postponed for the next day.

He said they were then moved to the general investigation department to identify the robber but stayed there for two days because they did not have a lawyer.

Al-Qurani said that they eventually found a lawyer, who then paid for a taxi to take them to the border because they did not have enough money. He also claimed that the Jordanian police had refused to allow him to contact the Saudi Embassy. "We were treated very badly," he said.

A Jordanian security source has confirmed that two Saudi citizens had been robbed and that the police were searching for the perpetrator. However, he also accused the two Saudi men of having a record of violations, but did not provide any details of the offenses.

He said there was also an investigation underway into their claims of false arrest and abuse while in custody.