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A British couple jailed for 10 years in Iran on spying charges have said they feel \u201cdejected, alone and completely hopeless\u201d and have urged Prime Minister Keir Starmer to \u201cstep in and help us\u201d.“Craig and Lindsay Foreman, both 53 and from East Sussex, were arrested while traveling through Iran as part of a global motorcycle tour in January 2025. They deny all charges and claim the charges were based on “false evidence” to justify the maximum sentence.<\/p>\n‘We are not spies’: Emotional appeal from jail<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Speaking from Tehran’s notorious Evin prison, Craig Foreman said the couple’s innocence was known to the UK government but not publicly disclosed.Sky News quoted Foreman as saying, “It is very difficult to understand why our innocence has not been publicly stated. We are not spies. The allegations made against us are not true.”In a direct appeal to Starmer and senior officials he said: “Make the information public, you have to come forward clearly, come out of the shadows and help us. Our lives are in constant danger.”<\/p>\n‘Life-threatening situation’ amid conflict<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
The couple said they were being held in a “war zone”, with the prison rocked by explosions from nearby attacks. Family members said the explosions shattered windows and forced prisoners to hide as debris fell around them.Conditions inside the prison have reportedly deteriorated due to food shortages, lack of medical care and prisoners sleeping on metal cots without mattresses. Craig Foreman is said to be suffering from an untreated dental abscess.<\/p>\nFamily describes ‘slow destruction’<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
The couple had entered Iran with valid visas as part of a planned trip to Australia from Europe and intended to stay only for a short period of time. His family has described the trial as a “sham”, alleging arbitrary detention.The couple’s son, Joe Bennett, said the emotional toll had been severe, especially on his mother.He described his detention as “slow destruction”, saying, “My mother is in pieces… the feeling that she has been abandoned by her own government is breaking her.”He also criticized the lack of promptness on the part of British authorities and said that the government had not taken enough steps to publicly challenge the allegations.<\/p>\nBritish government responded<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
The UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said the welfare of British nationals detained in Iran remains a priority.In a statement, it described the couple’s sentencing as “absolutely appalling and completely unfair” and said efforts were ongoing to secure their release and reunite them with their family.The FCDO reiterated its advice to British citizens against traveling to Iran, citing significant risk of detention.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A British couple jailed for 10 years in Iran on spying charges have said they feel \u201cdejected, alone and completely hopeless\u201d and have urged Prime Minister Keir Starmer to \u201cstep in and help us\u201d.“Craig and Lindsay Foreman, both 53 and from East Sussex, were arrested while traveling through Iran as part of a global motorcycle<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16274,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[7042,2599,2280,2634,2728,1059,312,4674,287,2913,1509,7900,3246,2639,3887],"class_list":{"0":"post-16273","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bible-news","8":"tag-10year","9":"tag-abandoned","10":"tag-british","11":"tag-charges","12":"tag-couple","13":"tag-feel","14":"tag-iran","15":"tag-prison","16":"tag-release","17":"tag-secure","18":"tag-sentence","19":"tag-serving","20":"tag-spying","21":"tag-starmer","22":"tag-urge"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16273"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16275,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16273\/revisions\/16275"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}