A British couple detained in Iran have been sentenced to 10 years in prison on espionage charges, their family said on Thursday, prompting renewed calls on London to secure their release.
Lindsay and Craig Foreman, both in their 50s, were arrested in January 2025 while on a motorcycle trip through Iran. They deny the charges.
The couple were tried in October at Branch 15 of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court and were not allowed to present a defense, according to their son, Joe Bennett. A judge delivered the verdict in recent days, the family told BBC.
“We are deeply concerned about their welfare,” Bennett said, urging the British government to “act decisively and use every available avenue” to bring them home.
He said Iranian authorities had presented no evidence of espionage and that their lawyers had been told there was no legal basis for the case. Applications for bail were ignored, he added.
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper has decried their sentence as "completely appalling and totally unjustifiable".
"We will pursue this case relentlessly with the Iranian government until we see Craig and Lindsay Foreman safely returned to the UK and reunited with their family," she said.
Britain’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has previously said it was “deeply concerned” by the couple’s detention and that it continued to raise the case directly with Iranian authorities.
The Foremans are being held in separate wings of Tehran’s Evin prison, which rights groups have long criticized over alleged torture and inhumane conditions.
Bennett has said the couple endured 13 months in dire conditions, surrounded by “dirt, vermin, and violence,” and that they had been losing weight.
In November, Bennett said his mother had begun a hunger strike inside Evin, telling him during a brief phone call that “not eating was the only power she’s got.”
The couple were first detained in the southeastern city of Kerman, where they spent 30 days in solitary confinement before being transferred to Tehran, the family has said. They had entered Iran with valid visas, a licensed guide and a cleared itinerary, Bennett added.
Rights groups and Western governments have long accused Iran of engaging in so-called “hostage diplomacy” by detaining foreign nationals to gain political or economic concessions, an allegation Tehran rejects, saying it faces Western intelligence infiltration.
