‘Clearly my parents aren’t spies ... I’ll fight every day until they are home’
Thirteen months after being arrested in Iran on an around-the-world motorcycle trip, British couple Lindsay and Craig Foreman have been convicted of espionage and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Lindsay’s son, Joe Bennett, tells Radhika Sanghani how this ordeal is affecting them all
They were so excited,” says Joe Bennett, 31, of his parents before they embarked on an around-the-world motorcycle trip. “It was the trip of a lifetime. They’re young enough to be able to endure that kind of trip, and old enough to have the luxury of being able to do it.”
But instead of realising their dream, the couple were suddenly detained at the Iranian border, two months into their journey. Dr Lindsay Foreman, a 53-year-old business coach from East Sussex, and her husband Craig, 53, a carpenter, were detained in an Iranian prison in January 2025, on charges of espionage that their son Joe says are “completely bonkers”.
And this week, after a trial in October that lasted just three hours and in which they were not allowed to present a defence, the Foremans were convicted of espionage and condemned to 10 years in prison; a sentence dismissed by Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper as “completely appalling and totally unjustifiable”.
The family were informed of the sentence last week and is deeply concerned for their welfare and the “lack of transparency” in the judicial process.
Joe says: “My parents have now been sentenced to 10 years following a trial that lasted just three hours and in which they were not allowed to present a defence. They have consistently denied the allegations. We have seen no evidence to support the charge of espionage.”
He added, “We were previously told that once sentencing occurred, further action would follow. We now hope the UK government will act decisively and use every available avenue to secure their release.”
Craig and Lindsay had taken up motorcycling a few years earlier in homage to Lindsay’s brother, Ashley, who died in a motorcycle accident in 1993. “Mum was like Bambi on ice at first,” Joe remembers. “She was hilarious to watch. But then she fell in love with it.”
Craig and Lindsay set off from the UK in November 2024, travelling through France, Spain, and Turkey, before reaching Iran. They’d planned to continue through Pakistan, India and Asia, then finish in Australia, where Lindsay had a work conference. But they never left Iran.
“They had a few days in Iran where everything was great,” says Joe, who has now given up his job in tech sales to campaign full-time for his parents’ release and manage their properties in the UK and Spain. “Mum was posting lots of photos, and couldn’t have been more complimentary of the people, the art, the architecture and how warm everyone was.”
On the final leg of their trip to reach the Pakistani border, she warned Joe there’d be a bad signal patch, and he might not hear from them. He wasn’t worried when the messages stopped for a few days – until he noticed she’d been online on WhatsApp and was reading his messages, but not replying.
“Mum wouldn’t do that. I knew something was wrong. But what actually happened to them just didn’t cross my mind as an option – you wouldn’t even think of it when they’re just two innocent people on holiday.”
Joe – along with his younger brother, Toby, 20, and Kieran and Chelsea, Craig’s children from a previous marriage – contacted the Foreign Office. They were quickly told it was a missing persons case, and 10 days after their parents’ radio silence, they saw Iran had released a blurred photo of two detained UK nationals. It was Craig and Lindsay.
“My heart dropped,” says Joe. “It didn’t feel real and it shouldn't be real – the reality is that they’re innocent travellers. The whole thing was completely alien for months. I’d wake up feeling normal, and then within 15 seconds, my world came crashing down again. I kept thinking – what do we do? What’s the process? How do I get them home?”
The Foreign Office advised waiting and staying silent, explaining that there is a “significant risk of arrest, questioning or detention” for all British and British-Iranian nationals travelling to Iran. “We kept thinking they’d be released once they were questioned, because they were so obviously innocent,” explains Joe. “But that didn’t happen.”
Joe didn’t get to speak to his mum or stepfather on the phone for seven months. “It was traumatic. My mum is the most important person to me in this world. It was the worst thing not to be able to speak to her. It was heartbreaking for me – and for her.”
He still remembers their first phone call. “The floodgates opened as soon as we said hello. She broke down. But I didn’t want to waste the opportunity, so I said what I’d planned: ‘I love you. We love you. We’re all here and fighting. Everything’s being taken care of. We’re trying to get you home as soon as possible’. I wanted them to know they’re not forgotten, and they’re being fought for.”
Joe now knows that Craig and Lindsay were initially kept apart in solitary confinement for over 30 days before being moved to separate wards in Kerman prison. They did have six weeks in a cell together in spring, but were later transferred to separate wards in the notorious Evin prison in Tehran, where they remain.
“It’s been horrific for them,” says Joe. “They went on hunger strike a few months ago because they were promised calls to their family and visits to each other that never happened. When they were transferred to Evin, they were put on a commercial flight and told they were being released. Then they landed and were blindfolded and handcuffed. I can’t imagine the toll that took on them. It’s psychological torture.”
The lack of clarity around their situation was an additional torture. Craig and Lindsay went to court for their sentencing in September, but were not told the verdict that was reached. “We were told we’d find out after 10 days,” says Joe.
He is desperate for the Foreign Office to do more. “You can quite clearly tell that neither of them are spies in any way. The government can make a stand for what’s right, but there doesn’t seem to be a willingness to do that. It’s not the first time this has happened either.”
He says the Foreign Office strongly urged him to avoid making contact with other families who have been in similar situations, like Richard Ratcliffe, whose wife, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, was detained in Iran for six years.
“I found that odd. But I’m rebellious, so I reached out to them, and the accounts I had were pretty damning of the Foreign Office. I want the government to change their stance and strategy because this ‘sit and wait’ isn’t working. I don’t want to wait another three years to have my parents home.”
In December, a spokesperson for the Foreign Office told The Independent that they were raising their case directly with the Iranian authorities. And this week, Ms Cooper promised to pursue the case relentlessly until Craig and Lindsay are safely returned to the UK and reunited with their family.
“It’s like you’re grieving a loss and you just feel so sad for them,” says Joe. “It affects us all, but they’re both stuck in this notoriously tough prison where daily life is basic and unsanitary. It’s so hard to hear your mum, the person who’s given and shown strength and is always optimistic, now broken and crying and begging to come home.”
In December, after sporadic contact, Joe was able to speak to his mother more frequently.
“It was a chance for us to reconnect, which was fantastic. But she feels less low and lonely. It’s particularly hard for Mum because Craig has a few foreign nationals in his cell, but hardly any of the women speak English.”
And Joe is always aware that things can change, like when his mum and stepdad were promised a visit together to celebrate Craig’s birthday last December. At the last minute, it was cancelled. “These little things mean so much to them, and when they’re taken away, it breaks both of them. It shows them they have no power.”
The toll it has taken on the entire family has been huge. “You’ve got to have hope and optimism. I want them home for their 10th wedding anniversary in June.”
However, he is also realistic and has seen what has happened to other detained foreign nationals in Iran.
“Unfortunately, some of those cases have gone on for years. That is a possibility. You’ve got to be prepared for that side of things as well. But it won’t ease off my fighting. I’ll fight every day until they are home, and we are reunited as a family.”
A version of this interview was first published in December
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