The Diplomat
Santiago Sánchez Cogedor, the Spaniard who was arrested in Iran accused of espionage while visiting the grave of the young Mahsa Amini, will realise his dream of completing the journey to Qatar that he began two years ago thanks to the support of the Qatari ambassador to Spain, Abdalla Al-Hamar.
After fifteen months in captivity and two weeks after landing in Madrid, Santiago contacted the ambassador, who received him for the second time on 23 January at the Embassy’s headquarters. According to the Qatari Embassy, during the meeting the Spaniard expressed to the head of the Qatari Mission his desire to complete the trip and asked for his support. On his first visit, the ambassador had already given him constant support on his way to Qatar 2022 and, since then, he has shown a special interest in Santiago’s initiative.
Santiago will fly tomorrow, Wednesday, from Madrid to Doha on a Qatar Airways flight that will take him straight to fulfil his dream of “raising his arms in Doha”, a phrase Santiago repeated frequently during the meeting with the Ambassador.
Upon his arrival in Doha, he is expected to attend the Asia Cup Final, which will be played next Saturday in the Qatari capital.
Santiago Sánchez, committed to the environment and with a spirit of solidarity, started walking from Madrid in January 2022, eleven months before the Qatar 2022 World Cup Final. On his journey, he collected plastics, planted trees, helped young people and shared moments with people from different cultures and religions who hosted him on his way through all the countries until he reached the border with Iran.
