British couple held in notorious Iran prison ‘living off rice and gristle in kitchen filled with rats’

Lindsay and Craig Foreman were arrested nearly a year ago on a motorcycle tour around the world

A British couple held in Iran on spying charges are living off rice and gristle in a dirty cell as they prepare to spend Christmas inside Tehran's notorious Evin prison, their family have said.

Lindsay and Craig Foreman, of East Sussex, were arrested in January during a motorcycle tour around the world and later charged with espionage, which they deny.

Mrs Foreman's son, Joe Bennett, said his mother is “suffering a lot with her skin and weight” due to a lack of ventilation and poor conditions in the prison after nearly a year.

“It is extremely dirty,” he told Sky News. “She's cooking, the kitchen's filled with rats. It is dire, to be honest with you, for them both.

“They've lost a lot of weight because there isn't enough nourishment. They're eating rice and gristle every day. They can't really exercise. It's overcrowded and cramped.”

Lindsay and Craig Foreman have been held in Iran for nearly a year (Family handout)

As he and his family prepare to celebrate Christmas, he said he feels a sense of guilt while his mother is stuck in a cell.

The Evin House of Detention in Tehran was built before the Iranian Revolutions to hold hundreds of political prisoners.

Now housing as many as 15,000 people, it remains notorious for its squalid conditions and solitary holding cells without toilets or beds.

Rare accounts shared by the BBC last year told how inmates were in some cases interrogated for up to 12 hours a day, threatened with beatings or execution, and crammed into freezing, overcrowded cells.

The prison was also hit several times in Israeli strikes on the capital in June.

Evin Prison in Tehran was built by Reza Pahlavi in 1972 to hold political prisoners, before the Revolution (Ehsan Iran)

Mr Bennett said the couple, both in their 50s, is being supported by the Foreign Office.

He has met with Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, but feels “frustrated” by the Government’s handling of the situation.

“It feels like they're waiting for something. We're at a bit of a stalemate right now - Iran are waiting for the UK to move, the UK are waiting for Iran to move, and stuck in the middle are my parents and us.”

“There is this policy, it seems, to sit and wait and allow this judicial process which is, in my eyes, a complete circus, to play out.”

Mr and Mrs Foreman were arrested in January while touring Iran (Family handout)

Mr Bennett has been able to contact them by phone only a handful of times since their arrest.

He revealed in November that they had gone on hunger strike in a “cry out for help” after feeling “let down” by the UK government.

He said this week: “We were told almost two months ago, when they last were in court, that a sentence would be passed in a couple weeks. We're now two months down the line and nothing has happened.”

"I keep saying that we need to be being more accountable as a Government and speaking out. They are accused of espionage, spying for the British state, and yet that same UK Government won't come out and defend them and say that they completely deny the allegations."

The Foreign Office warns all British and British-Iranian nationals not to travel to Iran because of a “significant risk of arrest, questioning or detention”.

Joe Bennett expressed frustration about the government’s handling of the case (file (AFP/Getty)

In a statement in October, a spokesman for the FCDO said: “We are deeply concerned by reports that Craig and Lindsay Foreman have been charged with espionage in Iran.

“We continue to raise this case directly with the Iranian authorities.

“The FCDO are providing them with consular assistance and remain in close contact with their family members.”