THE son of a British woman who was locked up in Iran with her husband has made a frustrated plea to “bring them home”.
Lindsay and Craig Foreman have been detained inside Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison since January and are slated to remain behind bars for Christmas.
The pair were arrested at the beginning of the year during a motorcycle tour around the world, and were later charged with espionage.
The East Sussex couple has consistently denied the claims.
Lindsay’s son Joe Bennett said he felt “frustrated” by the Government’s handling of the case.
Despite receiving the support of the Foreign Office, Bennett told Sky News he felt there was “a policy… to sit and wait and allow this judicial process, which is, in my eyes, a complete circus, to play out”.
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“We were told almost two months ago, when they last were in court, that a sentence would be passed in a couple weeks,” he said.
“We’re now two months down the line and nothing has happened.
“I keep saying that we need to be being more accountable as a government and speaking out.”
Bennett said he had met with Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, who indicated that the Foreign Office did not want to be seen as interfering with the judicial process unfolding in Iran, but he believed enough time had passed.
“They are accused of espionage, spying for the British state,” he said.
“Yet that same UK Government won’t come out and defend them and say that they completely deny the allegations.
“They’re not being accused of something like shoplifting, or a petty crime… This is a state-level charge of crime, and [the government] needs to be backing their UK citizens,” he added.
He said he felt as though the Government were “waiting for something”.
“We’re at a bit of a stalemate right now – Iran are waiting for the UK to move, the UK are waiting for Iran to move, and stuck in the middle are my parents and us,” he said.
Bennett said his mother had suffered “a lot with her skin and weight”, due to the lack of ventilation and poor conditions inside the prison.
“It is extremely dirty,” he said.
“She’s cookingthe kitchen’s filled with rats.
“It is dire, to be honest with you, for them both.”
Bennett said the couple had both “lost a lot of weight” due to undernourishment.
“They’re eating rice and gristle every day,” he said.
“They can’t really exercise… It’s overcrowded and cramped.”
Bennett – who is now preparing for a Christmas without the Foremans – said he felt “a sense of guilt” that his mother was “stuck in a cell”, unable to celebrate.
“[The government should be] taking a stand and saying: ‘This isn’t right, we do not agree with it, and we want our citizens home as soon as possible,’” he said.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has warned all British and British-Iranian nationals not to travel to Iran because of a “significant risk of arrest, questioning, or detention”.
In October, a spokesman for the FCDO released a statement, saying: “We are deeply concerned by reports that Craig and Lindsay Foreman have been charged with espionage in Iran”.
“We continue to raise this case directly with the Iranian authorities.
“The FCDO are providing them with consular assistance and remain in close contact with their family members.”