British nationals Lindsay and Craig Foreman have been sentenced to 10 years in prison over allegations of espionage in Iran.
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper has condemned their sentence 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,” she said.
Joe Bennett, Lindsay Foreman’s son, told Sky News’ Jason Farrell he had spoken with the couple since their sentencing, describing how they reacted to the news with a “kind of mass panic”.
He said the prison sentence left him with a “pit in the stomach” describing how “I felt sick, [I] didn’t sleep”.
The couple were arrested in January 2025 while travelling through the country on an around-the-world motorcycle journey and detained on charges of espionage.
The Foremans, from East Sussex, who are being held in Tehran’s Evin prison, deny the allegations.
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The couple’s family says the sentence places the case “in line with the most severe politically motivated detentions of UK nationals in Iran”.
Mr Bennett said that the couple has been “sentenced to 10 years following a trial that lasted just three hours and in which they were not allowed to present a defence”.
“They have consistently denied the allegations. We have seen no evidence to support the charge of espionage,” he added.
The sentence follows a court appearance on 27 October 2025 before Judge Abolghasem Salavati at Branch 15 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran.
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Judge Salavati has previously been sanctioned by the UK, US and EU in connection with human rights violations and the conduct of trials criticised internationally for lack of due process.
Ahead of his sentencing, Mr Foreman described being held in an “eight-foot cell with a hole in the floor and a sink” and described the effects of 57 days in solitary confinement, saying: “Emotionally and physically, it broke me to pieces”.
He said once a month meetings with his wife are what sustain him.
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Mr Bennett said the couple had “already spent more than thirteen months in detention”. “We are deeply concerned about their welfare and about the lack of transparency in the judicial process,” he added.
He told Jason Farrell that the couple’s family had received a call straight away from Foreign Office minister Hamish Falconer who was “quite forceful in the fact that he was going to pick it up with his counterparts”.
Mr Bennett also welcomed Ms Cooper’s statement, saying he had already noticed a “different tone… from the government and that’s only been within 24 hours”.
“For the first time, there’s a sentence that the government can now act on, which is what they’ve been asking for for the last 14 months,” he added.
The Foreign Office is currently warning people not to travel to Iran, because of “the significant risk of arrest questioning or detention”. “The UK government will not be able to help you if you get into difficulty in Iran,” it has cautioned.
Iran has arrested dozens of foreign visitors and dual nationals in recent years, mostly on espionage and security-related charges.
Human rights groups and some Western countries have accused Iran of trying to win concessions from other nations through arrests on trumped up charges.
British-Iranian dual nationals like Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori are among those who have spent years behind bars in Iran before diplomatic negotiations helped secure their release.
The sentencing of the Foremans comes amid heightened tensions in the region following a deadly crackdown on a wave of demonstrations in Iran.
Donald Trump last month urged Iranian protesters – thousands of whom have been killed by the regime’s forces – to keep demonstrating and promised that “help is on the way”.
A powerful US military force continues to assemble within striking distance of Iran.
