Name Jonathan Spollen | ||
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Leonard Jonathan Spollen (born 1984) is/was an Irish journalist for the International Herald Tribune newspaper, and formerly Assistant Foreign Editor of The National in Abu Dhabi. He went missing on 3 February 2012 from the northern Indian tourist attraction of Rishikesh, sparking an international campaign to locate him, which included his local TD, Eoghan Murphy, raising the issue in the Irish Parliament.
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Biography
Spollen has worked on stories including the Iranian nuclear programme, the Hijab controversy in Ireland and the 2009 Iranian Elections. He read Philosophy and Politics at University College Dublin, before commencing postgraduate studies in 2004 focusing on the Near and Middle East at London's School of Oriental and African Studies.
Disappearance and aftermath
Some commentators have speculated that Spollen may have fallen prey to a supposed condition increasingly described as the India syndrome, which shares similarities with the alleged form of spiritual hysteria known as the Jerusalem syndrome. However, this claim has yet to be substantiated. Spollen is still considered a missing person. Indian police and Irish authorities are calling for any information as to his whereabouts.
