An Iranian court has sentenced British couple Lindsay and Craig Foreman to 10 years in prison after convicting them of espionage, their family said Thursday.
The British government condemned the ruling, which has been widely viewed as another example of what critics describe as the Islamic Republic’s “hostage diplomacy” — the detention of foreign nationals on security charges in an effort to extract concessions from Western governments.
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Lindsay and Craig Foreman
(Photo: AFP PHOTO / Family handout via Foreign, Commonweatlh & Development Office (FCDO))
The Foremans, both in their 50s, were arrested in January 2025 while traveling through Iran as part of a round-the-world motorcycle journey, according to their family. They entered Iran on Dec. 30, 2024, from Armenia and had planned to leave on Jan. 4 for Pakistan, hoping eventually to reach Australia.
Family members say the couple held valid Iranian visas, were traveling with an approved guide and had a sanctioned route. They have consistently denied Iran’s allegations that they were spying.
The sentencing comes at a time of heightened tensions in and around Iran, amid assessments that U.S. President Donald Trump is nearing a decision on possible military action against the Islamic Republic over its refusal to abandon its nuclear program and accept strict limits on its ballistic missile arsenal.
According to relatives, the verdict was issued after the couple were brought before a court in October for a hearing that lasted just three hours and during which they were not permitted to defend themselves. Lindsay's son, Joe Bennett, said there was no evidence to support the espionage charges.
“We are deeply concerned about their welfare and about the lack of transparency in the judicial process,” Bennett said.
British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper denounced the outcome as “completely appalling and totally unjustifiable.”
“We will pursue this case relentlessly with the Iranian government until we see Craig and Lindsay Foreman safely returned to the UK and reunited with their family,” Cooper said. “In the meantime, their welfare is our priority and we will continue to provide consular assistance to them and their families.”
The couple were detained while passing through Kerman in central Iran. Iranian judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir said last year they had entered the country posing as tourists but were in fact gathering intelligence.
Lindsay Foreman is being held in the women’s ward of Tehran’s Evin Prison, a facility known for housing political prisoners and government critics. Craig Foreman is being held in a ward for political detainees.
Hours before her sentence was made public, Lindsay Foreman gave a rare interview from prison to BBC radio. Speaking over a crackling phone line, she described life behind bars as a test of mental endurance. She said she exercises within the prison’s confined space, including running in circles in a small yard, and that practicing yoga has helped sustain her.
“I've resigned myself to the fact that my physical health might not be what it was when I came in but I can regain it when I leave,” she said. She acknowledged that it was “incredibly hard to remain positive,” adding that she was coping “one day at a time.”
“I'm surrounded by people who are in worse situations who have to live this their entire life,” she said. “In some way I feel lucky that I've had the life I have until this point - and hopefully one day for me it will end.”
In the interview, Lindsay Foreman said she accepted responsibility for entering Iran despite a strong travel warning from Britain’s Foreign Office. She noted that travel information described guests in Iran as “God’s companions,” saying, “It’s true they are the warmest people, except they live in circumstances which do not allow them to do that to the fullest extent.”
The Foremans have sought advice from other Britons previously detained in Iran and their relatives, including Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, who campaigned for years for her release. Zaghari-Ratcliffe returned to Britain in 2022 after six years in prison, following London’s agreement to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to settle what was described as a longstanding debt to Iran.
Relatives of the Foremans also point to the release last year of two French nationals, Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris, who were freed after more than three years in Iranian custody on alleged espionage charges.