UK couple jailed in Iran make first call home
A British couple detained in Iran on espionage charges spoke to their families on August 5th for the first time since their arrest in January, their relatives confirmed, as reported by Al-Monitor via AFP.
The news arrived shortly after the family learned that Lindsay and Craig Foreman, both aged 52, had been transferred to separate prisons in and around the Tehran, deepening concerns about their safety.
Lindsay and Foreman appear to be victims of what French foreign minister Jean-NoĂ«l Barrot termed “a state policy” when referring to the political imprisonment of Europeans travelling in Iran. What’s more, two French citizens had been charged by Iran for allegedly “spying” for Israel.
The suspicion remains that the imprisonment of European nationals are calculated moves for geopolitical leverage by the state of Iran which can later be used against rival countries.
Iranian authorities arrested the couple in early January while they travelled through Kerman on a round-the-world motorbike trip. A month later, officials accused them of spying. Since then, little information had emerged about their condition or location.
Family members, increasingly distressed, campaigned for Iran to permit calls and allow UK officials to have more access to them. After months of silence, that breakthrough finally came.
“For 213 days, we waited. Hoped. Held our breath. And today, we finally got those phone calls,” said Lindsay’s son, Joe Bennett. “We finally heard their voices. After seven long months with no direct contact, we can now say what we’ve been desperate to say all this time: Lindsay and Craig are alive.”
Bennett said the call lasted around eight minutes: “We laughed, we cried, and for a few brief moments, it felt like the weight of the past seven months lifted.” He stressed the need for continued pressure, noting: “Lindsay and Craig still haven’t had a consular visit in months.”
He urged the UK government to outline its strategy, calling its “ongoing silence” over the couple’s detention “deeply concerning”. Craig’s son, Kieran Foreman, called his separate call “a massive relief” that gave him “hope”.
However, the EU has expressed concern over European detainees in Iran not being given fair trials.
Al-Monitor via AFP, Maghrebi.org, The Associated Press
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