The four children of a British couple imprisoned in Iran on espionage charges have handed a petition to Downing Street, demanding urgent intervention from the UK government. Lindsay and Craig Foreman, both 53, have been held in Tehran's Evin Prison since January 2025 after being sentenced to ten years for spying—charges they deny. The couple were arrested during a global motorbike trip.
Family's Plea for Action
The couple's children—Joe Bennett, 31, Toby Rutland, 19, Kieran Foreman, 28, and Chelsea Foreman, 30—have gathered over 84,000 signatures calling for their release. Joe Bennett told the Mirror: "We've got a fight on our hands, I know we have, but the point we're making today is we won't stop fighting." The family was joined by former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith, Baroness Helena Kennedy, and MPs Brendan O'Hara and Tony Vaughan, who will table an adjournment debate in Parliament on Thursday.
500 Days of Incarceration
Earlier on Wednesday, a motorcycle procession passed the Iranian Embassy and ended in Parliament Square to mark 500 days of the Foremans' detention. Joe, who quit his software sales job to campaign full-time, said: "It's been dark days, dark weeks. It's scary to think we're at 500 days, it's a long time. But we need to make sure we're doing everything we can to reduce how long they're in there for." The couple were previously allowed phone calls but were stripped of this privilege earlier this month, cutting their only contact with family. They are now believed to be on hunger strike in protest.
Concerns Over Health and Conditions
Joe expressed worry about his parents' health but understood their decision: "It's very hard on us as a family as we don't know how they are. Hearing through sources that they are on hunger strike heightens the need to speak to them. It heightens our anxiety as no one wants them on hunger strike, but their only agency to be seen or heard is by doing what they're doing. It's a desperation act." He described prison conditions as "vermin infested, the food is inadequate and there's no exercise space. It's just torment. They have experienced things no normal person can imagine."
Support from Campaigners and MPs
Joe is in regular contact with Richard Ratcliffe, who went on hunger strike twice to secure his wife Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe's release from Iran. Joe said: "It's awful how common this is—not just with UK nationals. It's a western problem. There needs to be an accumulation of pressure, not just from the UK government, but every government to say 'what you're doing isn't right'." Minister Hamish Falconer recently described the couple as "innocent tourists" in Parliament, with the Foreign Office calling their incarceration "appalling and unjustified."
Tony Vaughan, MP for Folkestone and Hythe, said: "So much time has passed and the family feels like nothing has happened. The government needs to be explicit that this is a hostage taking, that they are essentially being used by Iran. Let's call a spade a spade so that we can take the steps necessary to protect them." Iain Duncan Smith, a keen motorcyclist, added: "They're hostages. They've not committed any crime in Iran—they were taken because they thought they needed hostages. The way to retaliate is to prescribe the IRGC here in the UK, who are behind huge amounts of terrorist activity." He urged the government to take action against Iranian operatives if the couple are not released.
