British couple jailed in Iran for alleged spying meet UK officials, but son says 'I want the phone to ring'

A British couple jailed in Iran over alleged spying have been seen by UK officials after more than 100 days of waiting, according to the family.

Craig and Lindsay Foreman were handed a 10-year prison sentence in February after being convicted of espionage, which they both deny.

But according to a statement released by Free Lindsay and Craig, a family-led campaign group working to secure their release, British officials have seen the pair for the first time since 15 June.

The statement said they have also been granted one family call per week, with the first promised for today.

However, Joe Bennett, Lindsay's son, who has only spoken to his mother once in five months, said: "I don't want another assurance that a phone call should happen. I want the phone to ring.

"And I don't want 'immediate release' to become another powerful phrase that changes nothing about where they wake up tomorrow morning."

Craig, 52, and Lindsay, 53, from East Sussex, were jailed after ​Iranian authorities accused them of spying for Britain and Israel.

They were arrested in January 2025 while travelling through the country on an around-the-world motorcycle trip from Europe to Australia.

Both have been locked up inside Tehran's notorious Evin Prison, where British-Iranian Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was held for five years, and say they have been kept in squalid conditions while forced to wait months for basic medical treatment.

They deny the Iranian allegations, with Ms Foreman describing the charges in a diary entry as "a joke; lies and nonsense".

The pair went on hunger strike for three months earlier this year in protest over their sentence.

Mr Foreman told British officials he had regained around 10kg of the 17kg he lost during a hunger strike, according to the statement, with the couple appearing physically stronger and in better spirits than on previous occasions.

The statement said the meeting, on 5 October, came after "a gap of 112 days, during which both endured prolonged hunger strikes and their family was left with desperately limited contact".

It added: "For Lindsay's son, Joe Bennett, the human reality is even harder to comprehend. In the last five months, he has only spoken to his mother for approximately 10 minutes."

However, the family said that regular family calls have not been properly restored, and Ms Foreman's medication has reportedly not reached her.

Basic welfare items are scarce, and access to legal representation is difficult due to the lack of reliable phone contact.

During the visit, Ms Foreman showed British officials a written document dated 3 June containing conditions she understood had been agreed during the period of her hunger strike, the statement says.

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These included phone contact, consular access, access to her lawyer and basic welfare provisions, but months later many of those issues remain unresolved, according to the family.

The visit comes two weeks after Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband raised the couple's situation directly with Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi at the UN General Assembly, repeating the UK government's call for their immediate release.

"I welcomed Ed Miliband raising mum and Craig directly with his Iranian counterpart at the United Nations. That matters. It is important that the British government is publicly saying they should be released. But once you use the word 'immediate', there has to be urgency behind it," Mr Bennett said.

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