Tehran, Iran. The family of a British couple detained in Iran said on Friday the pair were being used as “human shields” during the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and accused the British government of failing to make progress on their release.
Detention and sentencing
Lindsay and Craig Foreman were sentenced to 10 years in prison last year after Iran charged them with espionage, which they deny.
The couple were arrested in January 2025 while travelling through Iran on motorcycles as part of a world trip. In February last year, Iranian state media announced their detention on espionage charges.
Family allegations and prison conditions
The family said the couple were being used as “effective human shields” and said a blast near Evin prison in Tehran had blown out window panels in Craig Foreman’s ward and had sent plaster falling on inmates who dived under beds for cover.
“My parents are living under a ‘drone of drones’, the constant, maddening buzz of 600 machines in the sky,” Joe Bennett, Lindsay Foreman’s son, said in a statement.
He said they were sharing small rectangular cells with rats and cockroaches, sleeping on metal bunks without mattresses, and living in constant physical pain.
Engagement with the British government
Bennett has lobbied the British government to secure his parents’ release. At a conference on arbitrary detention in Washington this month, he said his parents felt abandoned and that Britain had offered “almost non-existent” advocacy beyond basic practical support.
The British government has condemned the Foremans’ sentence as “totally unjustifiable” and has said it will keep pressing for their release.
Bennett said British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper offered only “delay and uncertainty” during a meeting he held with her this week.
The foreign ministry’s press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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