A British couple detained in Iran were making a film about happiness, their family has insisted, as it emerged that Iranian authorities are claiming the footage is proof that the pair were spies.
Lindsay and Craig Foreman, who were arrested in the Iranian city of Kerman in early January and are charged with espionage, had their second court hearing last week.
They had been interviewing people they met during their travels through Iran asking them what makes for a happy life. They had plans to show their film at a psychology and wellness conference in Australia, the last stop on their motorcycle trip around the world.
Ms Foreman's son, Joe Bennett, said the couple had a real passion for their project and had filmed interviews in other countries before arriving in Iran.
“They’re both interactive people who have a deep love for people and travel,” Mr Bennett said.
But the Iranian authorities have claimed these filmed interviews, which were mainly with women and included questions such as “what do you think of life here?”, were evidence of an attempt to promote regime change.
Ms Foreman told her son that the hearing had not gone well, in the second call they have had since her arrest. He feared she and Mr Foreman were losing hope.
“Hearing that loss of hope in her voice had been so hard,” he told old parliamentarians at a meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Hostages and Detainees on Wednesday.
Ms Foreman told her son she had found a rat in her bed. He fears her mental and physical health are declining due to her incarceration and overcrowding at Evin prison.
“It's not just the physical, it's the mental toll of what's happening. It's just a matter of time. All of the setbacks are chiselling away at them as people,” he told The National after the meeting.
“No matter how strong you are, if you are constantly being set back, all of these little events that happen chisel away at you.”
Hostage negotiator
Mr Bennett feared that his family were caught in a waiting game between the British and Iranian authorities.
The family met Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper recently but said they were advised to wait until the outcomes of the hearing before deciding on the next steps.
“There's a lot of words with little action. It's waiting for something to happen,” Mr Bennett said during the meeting. “There’s no plan in place for their release, or even an indication that there is one behind the scenes.”
The family and rights groups hope that the coming appointment of a special envoy for hostage affairs, in line with a similar role in the US, would change that.
“What the UK does is it sits back and allows this to happen and watches process take place,” Brendan O’Hara, MP and foreign affairs spokesman for the Scottish National Party, told The National.
“There really does have to be a complete change of tack by the UK government in how it approaches this. It has the opportunity with a special envoy to do that, but the special envoy has to have the powers to be able to make that happen.”
A former US special envoy for hostage affairs, Roger Carstens, set the benchmark for hostage negotiations, securing the release of 58 Americans in Iran, Venezuela, Myanmar, Russia, Nigeria and Afghanistan in four years.
“It needs someone of that stature to go to these places and negotiate robustly,” Mr O’Hara said, adding that the special envoy's influence could be re-enforced by making them a prime ministerial appointment.
A shortlist for the envoy, who will answer to the Foreign Secretary, has already been prepared, with a chief of staff and team appointed, according to Rupert Skilbeck, chief executive of Redress, a charity working with hostage survivors and their families.
But the appointment was delayed by the cabinet reshuffle in September, Mr Skilbeck said during the meeting.
He hoped that the envoy would be a former diplomat or government minister, with a direct line to the Prime Minister and Cabinet Office, among other departments, while serving as the central point of contact for the families of detainees.
Mr Skilbeck expects an appointment to be made by the end of the year.
British consular staff were barred from entering the Foremans’s last court hearing, Mr Bennett said, adding to concerns about the UK government’s ability to secure their release.
They also could not attend the first hearing in August as they had not been notified.
“What we hear is that the health and welfare consular access is of paramount importance,” Mr Bennett said. “That shouldn't be the core focus; the core focus of everything we do should be their release.”
Their defence lawyer in Tehran has told the family that he had succeeded in having one of the charges dropped – attempting to subvert the Islamic Republic – but that they still faced accusations of espionage.
However, they have been denied access to copies of the charges brought against the couple or any legal documents because it was against Iranian law.
