Call to label Iran detention of Brits as arbitrary
The son of two Britons imprisoned in Iran has met MPs and Lords to call for their detention to be formally recognized as arbitrary.
Joe Bennett met with parliamentarians earlier to claim that Craig and Lindsay Foreman, from East Sussex, were arrested without reason in January 2025.
Folkestone and Hythe MP Tony Vaughan, who joined Bennett in making the call, said calling their detention arbitrary would make the case a diplomatic priority and cease to “respect a sham judicial process”.
The British government said it was continuing to raise the matter “directly with the Iranian authorities” and provide consular assistance.
Bennett, from Folkestone, said that in prison “every day is hell” for the couple, who have been accused of spying by Iranian authorities.
The Foremans were in Iran on a world motorcycle tour at the time of their arrest and their family said the spying charges were “ridiculous.”
Folkestone and Hythe MP Tony Vaughan joined Bennett in calling on the UK government to officially recognize the detention as arbitrary.
“If the government recognizes that the detention is arbitrary, it is massively prioritizing how it should approach this matter.
“This is exactly what we need,” the MP said.
In September 2024, the UK government told the UN Human Rights Council that it was working “to condemn the use of arbitrary detention, to support those who have been arbitrarily detained and to demand accountability”.
According to the family, the Foremans’ court-appointed attorney told them in January that he was no longer available to represent them.
The family said they were “escalating violence” in the prison where she is being held.
Joe Bennett called on the British government to do more to free his parents [BBC]
“It’s not like prisons here,” Bennett told the BBC. “They’re metal bunk beds. They have two blankets as mattresses.”
He said the prison was “overcrowded” and “unsanitary”, with food shortages, fighting and vermin problems.
Bennett accused the British government of waiting “for an unfair legal process to unfold.”
According to the British Foreign Office, British nationals are advised not to travel to Iran and are at “significant risk of being arrested, questioned or detained” in the country.
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