Call to label Iran detention of Brits as arbitrary

The son of two Britons imprisoned in Iran has met MPs and Lords to call for their detention to be formally recognised as arbitrary.

Joe Bennett met parliamentarians earlier to argue Craig and Lindsay Foreman, from East Sussex, were arrested without reason in January 2025.

Bennett said labelling their detention as arbitrary would make the case a diplomatic priority and stop "respecting a sham judicial process".

The UK government said it continued to raise the case "directly with the Iranian authorities" and to provide consular assistance.

Bennett, from Folkestone, said that in prison "every day is hell" for the couple, who were accused of spying by Iranian authorities.

The Foremans were in Iran on an around-the-world motorbike trip at the time of their arrest and their family have said the espionage charges are "ludicrous".

Folkestone and Hythe MP Tony Vaughan joined Bennett to call on the UK government to formally recognise the detention as arbitrary.

"If the government recognises that the detention is arbitrary, it massively prioritises the way the government has to approach this case.

"That's exactly what is needed," the MP said.

In September 2024, the UK government said at the UN Human Rights Council it worked "to condemn the use of arbitrary detention, to support those who have been arbitrarily detained, and to demand accountability".

According to the family, the Foremans' state-appointed lawyer told them in January he was not longer available to represent them.

The family said they was "escalating violence" in the prison where they are held.

"It's not like the prisons here," Bennett told the BBC. "These are metal bunk beds. They have two blankets as a mattress."

He said the prison was "overcrowded" and "unsanitary" with food shortages, fighting and vermin problems.

Bennett accused the UK government of waiting "for an unfair judicial process to unfurl".

According to the UK Foreign Office, British nationals are advised not to travel to Iran and are "at significant risk of arrest, questioning or detention" in the country.

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