Spaniard Santiago Sanchez, who documents his walking trip from Madrid to Doha for this year’s FIFA World Cup in Qatar, has been missing since entering Iran three weeks ago, the Associated Press reported, citing BTA. .
The man, an expert on long walks, a former paratrooper and a football fan, was last seen in Iraq after traveling through 15 countries. For the past nine months he has been documenting his journey in detail on a popular Instagram account. However, his publications of him suddenly stopped on October 1, when he crossed from Iraq to Iran via Iran’s northwestern border.
His family said his daily WhatsApp messages were interrupted on the same day. Several weeks have passed since then and her relatives fear the worst.
The parents of 41-year-old Sanchez reported his disappearance to the police and the Spanish Foreign Ministry.
However, the Spanish authorities say they have no information on its whereabouts. They said the Spanish ambassador to Iran had addressed the issue.
So far, the Iranian Foreign Ministry has not responded to requests for comment on the case.
The Spanish Foreign Ministry said it had registered Sánchez’s entry across the border with Iran and did not rule out any possibility.
The news of the Spaniard’s disappearance comes at a time when Iran is rocked by mass unrest. The country has been gripped by the largest anti-government demonstrations in the past 10 years since protests broke out on September 16 over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was arrested by Iranian police for morality on suspicion of violating strict Islamic dress codes.
Iranian authorities cracked down on protests and accused foreign enemies and Kurdish groups of fueling the unrest. The Iranian intelligence ministry said nine foreigners, mostly Europeans, were arrested for alleged links to last month’s demonstrations.
Iran, which has strained relations with the West, has also arrested more than 10 dual nationals in recent years on controversial espionage charges, the AP noted.
