The son of a British couple detained in Iran for more than 400 days told MPs his parents have been subjected to inhumane conditions, starvation and psychological torment as he called on the government to act.
Lindsay and Craig Foreman were arrested while travelling in Iran last January and subsequently charged with espionage, which they deny. They are currently being held at Tehran’s notorious Evin prison.
Ms Foreman’s son, Joe Bennett, was meeting with parliamentarians on Wednesday to tell them his parents have endured threats of execution, witnessed regular knife fights and been left visibly malnourished and suffering from chronic medical neglect in prison.
“Since their arrest on January 3rd 2025, more than 400 days ago, Mum and Craig have suffered a list of human rights abuses that is truly shocking,” he said in a statement.
“We cannot allow ourselves to become desensitised. We cannot just sit and watch and wait while these terrible atrocities compound.”
Mr Bennett, from Folkestone in Kent, has said that his parents have been made to sleep on concrete floors or metal bunks with no mattresses, living in overcrowded, unsanitary and vermin-ridden conditions.
They were unable to call home for 213 days and have been subjected to 57 days of solitary confinement and interrogation, campaigners said. The Foremans have been able to have some contact with family since a hunger strike in November.
Mr Bennett told The Independent in January that his parents have since been forced into “overcrowded” cells in the wake of Iran’s brutal crackdown on nationwide protests.
They are now being regularly threatened as UK citizens in the midst of escalating violence and anti UK propaganda, campaigners said.
Craig is said to be in agony from untreated dental pain, and both are suffering from chronic medical neglect.
Mr Bennett, who has collected more than 60,000 signatures in a petition online, said in a statement: “Our family and our parents are living and reliving these horrors every single day, and yet our Government’s reaction is to wait; to wait for quiet diplomacy, to wait for an unfair judicial process to unfurl, to wait and wait and wait.
“Lessons from the past show that the failure of the UK Government to engage proactively on arbitrary detention has historically led to several years of additional horrific detention for hostages before the release of UK citizens as compared to their French, Belgian, German or US counterparts.
“We need to learn from history and not allow this to fester without intervention”.
Mr Bennett urged parliamentarians from all parties to demand that the UK Government formally declare the detention of Lindsay and Craig Foreman as Arbitrary Detention to make the issue a diplomatic priority and apply pressure to form a plan for their immediate release.
Mr Bennett’s MP, Tony Vaughan KC, invited Mr Bennett to discuss his family’s ordeal on Wednesday and said: “The ordeal Joe’s parents have endured for over 400 days is truly horrifying. They are living in conditions that no person should ever face.
“I am joining Joe today to call on the UK Government to formally recognise their detention as arbitrary. The FCDO must escalate their case as a diplomatic priority and formulate a strategic plan to bring them home. Waiting and seeing is no longer a strategy.”
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