Motorbike ride marks 614 days in Iran prison

The detention of a couple held in Iran "should shock people" as their time being held reaches over 600 days, their family has said.

The family of Craig and Lindsay Foreman said the wait for the couple to be returned has been "an incredibly long time", after they were detained in January 2025 while on a motorbiking trip in Iran.

Supporters marked 614 days since their detention on Wednesday by taking part in a motorbike ride through London and delivering a letter to the Iranian embassy.

Lindsay's son, Joe Bennett, from Folkestone, Kent, has called for "a pivot of approach". The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said it was working to provide consular assistance.

The East Sussex couple were sentenced in Iran in February this year to 10 years in jail over espionage charges, which they both deny, and remain in Tehran's Evin prison.

Bennett said: "If we continue to do the same things that we've been doing for the last 20 months, then I'll be standing here again in another 20 months saying the same thing."

He said: "It should shock people that they are still there."

The FCDO said the couple's health and welfare was a "top priority".

A spokesman for the FCDO said the couple's family met Middle East Minister Stephen Doughty in August who "set out how unjustified and appalling we consider their incarceration to be, and the action that the UK government is taking to try and secure their release".

In the letter to the embassy, supporters of the Foremans called on Iranian authorities to allow the couple to be seen by embassy officials, and said they were concerned about their welfare after what the family described as a three-month hunger strike.

Bennett said the letter also asked for regular phone contact to be restored, which he described as a "lifeline" for both the couple and their family.

He said the family ultimately wanted Iranian authorities to recognise that the pair were innocent tourists and allow them to return home.

"There are two people who are losing years of their lives," Bennett said.

The family last spoke to them at the end of August.

Bennett has previously called for a prisoner exchange.

Campaigner Richard Ratcliffe, whose wife Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was detained in Iran for six years, also joined supporters in Westminster.

He said it was important that families of detainees did not feel alone and pledged to continue supporting efforts to bring the Foremans back.

"We're here to do what we can until they're home," he said.

Mims Davies, Conservative MP for East Grinstead and Uckfield, whose constituency includes Forest Row, where the Foremans lived, said there was cross-party support for the campaign.

She said: "They were motorcyclists. They enjoyed trips and travel. They were innocent tourists in the region and I would hope that that is recognised, that our government highlights that."

She called on Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband to take up the couple's cause.

"I think it's time he picks the cause of Joe's family and Craig and Lindsay to make sure they are brought home," she said.

Labour MP Janet Daby, who represents former Iranian detainee Anoosheh Ashoori, said it was important British citizens detained abroad knew they had support.

"We need to know that British people, that when they go overseas and are caught up in situations like this, that there is a voice for them and they are protected," she said.

She says in the case of the Foremans, "the whole judicial process hasn't taken place as it should do".

"My understanding is they were out travelling, they were on holiday, and now they've got them, so they've been caught up in this type of situation which is wrong," she said.

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