A former British-Iranian detainee joined a campaign outside Parliament on Oct. 21 to press the U.K. government to secure the release of Lindsay and Craig Foreman, whose imprisonment has drawn concern from United Nations experts.
Anoosheh Ashoori joined supporters at the event. Ashoori told The National, “I have lived in that hell,” the outlet reported.
A communication dated April 9 from U.N. special rapporteurs said information they had received indicated the Foremans were arrested on Jan. 3, 2025, while traveling from Isfahan to Kerman. It said they were sentenced on Feb. 17, 2026, to 10 years each on espionage charges. The couple deny the allegations.
The experts raised concern that the prosecution and sentences might have been used to exert leverage, based on information they had received. They sought Iran’s account, and a U.N. record lists a reply received on July 21. The communication did not decide the case. The Associated Press reported on June 2, citing the family and the U.K. government, that the couple had lost an appeal and the case had gone to Iran’s Supreme Court.
On July 15, the family said Craig Foreman received an additional two-year sentence for speaking to the media. The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) said it was urgently following up with Iranian authorities.
The family emailed a petition with more than 100,000 signatures to the FCDO, the BBC reported. It also brought a box as a symbolic gesture because the department does not accept petitions in person. In Parliament, local MP Tony Vaughan asked Prime Minister Andy Burnham to consider calling the detention arbitrary and unlawful and providing diplomatic protection. Burnham called the sentence “appalling and unjustifiable” and said the Foreign Secretary had raised the case with Iran.
The FCDO said Ashoori and Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe returned to the U.K. on March 16, 2022, after nearly five and almost six years in detention, respectively. It said Britain settled its historic debt to Iran in parallel with their return. The family said it had a meeting scheduled with Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband on Oct. 27, 2026.
