A British couple detained in Iran’s Evin prison have been allowed their first consular visit in months, weeks after Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband raised their case with his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi.
Craig and Lindsay Foreman last met British ambassador Hugo Shorter on 15 June, shortly before embassy staff were told to leave Tehran due to escalating hostilities between the US and Iran. British embassy officials returned to Tehran in late August.
The couple’s children in the UK said the latest visit on Monday brought “desperately needed reassurance” to the family. They were expecting a phone call from their detained parents on Wednesday, which was promised to them by Evin’s prison authorities following the visit, they said.
Mr Miliband met Mr Araghchi at the UN General Assembly in September, where he repeated the British Government’s call for the Foreman’s immediate release.
Tension between the UK and Iran is at an all-time high following a suspected terror attack at a British airbase containing US military planes last week. This followed a series of attacks on Jewish businesses and Iranian dissidents in the UK, which police suspect were ordered by Iranian officials.
The couple were travelling through Iran on a motorcycle trip around the world when they were arrested in early January 2025 and subsequently sentenced to ten years in prison for espionage.
UN experts have described the couple’s detention as a “state hostage taking for political leverage”, citing “irregularities” in their trial last year.
During the meeting with Mr Shorter, it emerged that Ms Foreman was still waiting for medication that had been prescribed to her. She had also been unable to call her lawyers in the UK, the family said.
The couple had previously been allowed to make nearly daily phone calls to their families, but their phone cards were cut off in May after Ms Foreman gave an interview to British media from prison.
Mr Foreman is said to have regained 10kg of the 17kg he lost during a hunger strike in the summer to protest the barring of phone calls.
The couple are said to be “trying to cope” with their detention by supporting fellow prisoners. Ms Foreman is giving yoga lessons while Craig is helping with cooking and distributing the few vegetables available within his prison wing.
The family said this was “entirely in keeping with who they are” but warned that this was not a sign that their situation was improving.
Ms Foreman’s son, Joe Bennett, said that he welcomed Mr Miliband’s move, but that more action was needed from the UK government following the meeting to secure their release. “I welcomed Ed Miliband raising Mum and Craig directly with his Iranian counterpart at the United Nations. That matters,” he said.
“It is important that the British Government is publicly saying they should be released. Now we need to see ‘immediately’ being put into practice,” he said.
During Mr Shorter’s visit, Lindsay showed a written document dated June 3 containing a series of conditions she understood had been agreed with the prison authorities.
This included telephone contact, consular access, access to her lawyer and basic welfare provisions. “Months later, many of those issues remain unresolved,” the family said.
Mr Bennett said the family wanted to see better treatment for their parents while in prison and feared Mr Miliband’s meeting with Mr Araghchi would be ineffective without further pressure from the UK government.
“I don’t want another assurance that a phone call should happen. I want the phone to ring,” Mr Bennett said.
“I don’t want to hear that medication can be provided. I want medication prescribed by a doctor to reach my mum.”
“And I don’t want ‘immediate release’ to become another powerful phrase that changes nothing about where they wake up tomorrow morning.”
