The Iranian Embassy in Spain announced on December 31, 2023 that the country had released Spanish citizen Santiago Sanchez Cogedor Cogedor, a year after he was arrested while entering the country.
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| Protests in Madrid, Spain, in December 2022 calling on Iran to release Santiago Sanchez Cogedor. (Source: AFP) |
"We announce the decision to release Santiago Sanchez Cogedor, the only Spanish citizen detained in Iran," the Iranian embassy in Spain said in a statement. The statement also stressed that the decision to release Mr. Cogedor was made in accordance with Iranian law and took place in the context of "friendly and historic" relations between the two countries.
Cogedor, 41, was arrested in Iran around October 2022, while walking from Spain to Qatar to watch the World Cup later that year. His family lost all information about him a few weeks before the World Cup began.
In early October 2022, Cogedor sent his last voice message to his family, informing them that he had arrived in Tehran, intending to travel to the port of Bandar Abbas in the Strait of Hormuz to catch a boat to Qatar. A few days later, the Cogedor family was informed by the Spanish Foreign Ministry that he had been arrested in Iran, and all contact with him has been lost since.
Iranian officials have not given details on why Santiago Sanchez Cogedor has been detained for the past year.
According to Western media, Iran may be detaining more than 10 citizens of Western countries on various charges.
Human rights groups and some Western countries accuse Tehran of arresting foreign citizens to exert political pressure.
At the time of the Spanish citizen's arrest, Iran was in the midst of protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, a young woman who died after a scuffle with morality police in Tehran for violating the dress code for Muslim women.
Monitors say clashes between protesters and Iranian security forces have left hundreds dead and thousands arrested, far more than Iran's official toll.
(according to The Times of Israel)
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