A British woman detained with her husband in Iran has admitted they made “naive” mistakes when deciding to travel to the country during a motorbike world tour.
It is more than a year since Lindsay and Craig Foreman were taken into custody in January, before being charged with espionage. The couple, from East Sussex, deny the allegations and are being held in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison.
Ms Foreman spoke to ITV News by phone from the prison, telling the British broadcaster that the couple believed they had the correct documents to be in Iran, despite the Foreign Office warning citizens against travelling to the country.
“When you’re planning a route around the world, it’s quite complicated and Iran is a big section of that, you know, gateway from Europe to Asia … I thought getting a visa was a sign of a welcome," she said.
“Armenia was having a storm, Turkey was having a snowstorm. So had I known that, I probably would have gone a safer political route, while more dangerous geographically. We had an Iranian travel agent plotting our routes. We had a tour guide. We were escorted.
“We kind of felt … there’s a risk of detainment, but how bad can that be? If we’re innocent people, why would they detain us? So I naively and ignorantly thought that we’d be OK.”
Ms Foreman said she was able to see her husband, but described the meetings as “psychological torture”. “For example, we were promised three meetings a month, which can range between ... I think the [shortest] has been about 45 minutes," she said. "The longest I think we’ve had is just over two hours. On more than one occasion, they cancel it at the last minute. And that is the most soul-destroying thing.”
Ms Foreman also revealed she was told they were going to be released, only to be kept behind bars. She described that as the most "pitiful, depressing moment I think I’ve ever experienced".
“That actual belief that this is the end, only for it to literally all start all over again," she added.
Last month, Ms Foreman’s son Joe Bennett was joined by former Iran detainee Anoosheh Ashoori and Richard Ratcliffe, who fought a public campaign to have his wife Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe freed by the Tehran regime, at the steps of 10 Downing Street to deliver a petition calling on the government to do more to free the couple.
The petition had 70,000 signatures, “which is a clear sign there is a strong belief that this is nothing but an arbitrary detention”, Mr Bennett said.
“We want public acknowledgement that it is completely barbaric they are being held on these charges of espionage, that they are not spies for the British state and they are going to do everything they can to get them home," he added.
A Foreign Office representative told ITV News: “We remain deeply concerned that Craig and Lindsay Foreman have been charged with espionage in Iran. We continue to raise this case directly with the Iranian authorities.
“We continue to provide Craig and Lindsay with consular assistance and remain in close contact with their family members.”
