UN human rights experts have demanded the release of a British couple detained on spying charges in Iran, warning their case raises grave concerns over state hostage-taking.
Dr Alice Edwards, a special rapporteur on torture, and Mai Sato, a special rapporteur on human rights in Iran, said they were worried about the welfare of Craig and Lindsay Foreman.
The couple have been on hunger strike for more than 39 and 30 days respectively, fearing “there is no other way to be heard” after their contact with family in Britain was cut off.
They were arrested on a once in a lifetime world motorbike tour 17 months ago and later sentenced to 10 years in prison on espionage charges, which they completely deny.
This month The Independent revealed Iran is seeking the return of an Iranian national who has languished in maximum-security British prison for 23 years as the couple urged British officials to consider an exchange.
In a strongly worded intervention this week, the UN experts said: “Lindsay and Craig Foreman should not be in prison.
“They appear to have been wrongfully detained, prosecuted on highly questionable grounds, and sentenced after proceedings that failed to meet basic fair trial guarantees.”
The experts said the couple’s hunger strike is putting their lives at risk.
“After 30 days without food, this is a medical emergency,” they said. “Iranian authorities must ensure immediate access to independent medical care, protect their dignity and well-being, and urgently restore their rights, including contact with their families and consular representatives.”
In a letter to the Iranian authorities made public this week, the experts raised serious concerns that the couple’s detention forms part of a broader pattern of foreign nationals being arbitrarily detained in Iran on fabricated charges for political leverage.
“People must never be used as pawns in inter-state relations,” the experts said. “The arbitrary detention of foreign nationals for political or diplomatic leverage is a distortion of international relations and may amount to hostage-taking under international law.”
They called for Iran to release the British couple without delay and urged Britain to exhaust every diplomatic means available to secure their return.
They added: “The immediate priority is to keep Lindsay and Craig Foreman alive and well.
“But wider injustice must not be lost: two people who entered Iran lawfully as travellers now face 10 years in prison in circumstances raising grave concerns of wrongful detention and state hostage-taking.”
Earlier this month deputy prime minister David Lammy said “arrangements can be made” after The Independent revealed the couple’s case had been linked to that of Richard Jan, an Iranian stalker held in Britain, in a joint investigation with Sky.
Mr Foreman, 53, said he believes Jan could be the only “only avenue” to negotiating their release after Iranian officials raised his case in a consular meeting earlier this year. Although Britain has a policy not to do prisoner swaps, he can be deported.
Britain has spent almost £1m of taxpayers’ cash holding Jan for almost 16 years longer than his original minimum term, despite the government’s policy to remove foreign national offenders.
Jan’s plight also formed part of high-level negotiations in 2021 for the release of British-Iranian mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was detained for six years in Iran before she was finally freed after the British government settled a £400m arms debt with the country.
The Foreman’s family in Britain have also this week urged US president Donald Trump to push for a hostage exchange as part of his deal to end the war in Iran.
Joe Bennett, Lindsay’s son, said on Wednesday that “any serious framework deal” between United States and Iran must include the fate of foreign detainees as negotiators inch towards a preliminary agreement to end the war, expected on Friday.
“Peace cannot just mean quieter borders and open shipping routes. It must mean people coming home,” he said.
