No regular contact with pair held in Iran, family say

A British couple who have been detained in Iran for more than 20 months have not had regular contact restored with their family, despite assurances, their family say.

Lindsay and Craig Foreman, who were sentenced to 10 years in jail over espionage charges which they deny, were promised family contact after they ended hunger strikes, but there had not been regular calls since, they said.

The family of the couple, who are from East Sussex, is calling for an urgent meeting with Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband to discuss what action can be taken.

The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) said the couple's welfare was its "top priority" and officials had been working to provide assistance.

It said this included the ambassador visiting the pair in prison and facilitating calls with their family back in the UK.

The couple began hunger strikes earlier this year, after claiming that prison authorities had began to prevent them from speaking to their families. The hunger strikes lasted 93 and 84 days respectively.

The family is now calling for the government to provide regular consular visits and implement a focused strategy to secure the couple's release.

A spokesperson for the family says a British consular visit is planned for 5 October, which they say will be just the second visit of 2026.

They said the length of time it took to arrange the meeting, particularly following the hunger strikes, was "extremely concerning".

The FCDO said the family met with Middle East Minister Stephen Doughty and the UK's envoy for complex consular detentions Alistair Burt in August.

A spokesperson for the office said Doughty "set out how unjustified and appalling we consider Lindsay and Craig's incarceration to be, and the action that the UK Government is taking to try and secure their release".

Joe Bennett, Lindsay's son, said: "I understand perfectly well that the British government cannot simply tell the Iranian authorities what to do. I have never expected that.

"What I do expect is for our government to stand up for its citizens, to challenge what is happening and to keep pushing when commitments are made and then not honoured.

"Mum and Craig brought their hunger strikes to an end believing things would improve. Regular calls were supposed to be part of that.

"Instead, we are once again in a position where we are waiting, trying to understand what is happening from a distance and being given another date further down the road. That cannot just become normal."

Bennett, who is from Folkestone, in Kent, says he wants a meeting with Miliband to understand what is being done to bring the couple back to Britain.

"After everything Mum and Craig have been through, it is reasonable for us to ask whether every possible avenue is genuinely being explored and whether this case is being treated with the urgency it deserves," he added.

Bennett said he wanted Miliband to hear the case "directly from the family".

"After more than 600 days, I do not think that is too much to ask," he added.

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