MADRID: A Spanish football fan who set out to walk to Qatar to watch the football World Cup has been arrested in Iran, his mother said after he dropped out of contact for several weeks.

Santiago Sanchez Cogedor left his hometown near Madrid in January, hoping to make the epic journey in time for the Nov 20 competition.

But his family had not heard from him for almost a month.

“The (Spanish) foreign ministry confirmed he was being held in Iran and that his state of health was good,” Celia Cogedor told Spanish TV channel Trece late on Thursday.

The Spanish ambassador to Iran is taking steps to “ask the Iranian authorities for authorisation to visit him”, she added, without saying what he is accused of or where he is being held.

Published in Dawn, October 29th, 2022