‘Christmas is about family – and mine is trapped in an Iranian prison’
It’s been almost a year since British couple Craig and Dr Lindsay Foreman were detained in an Iranian prison on espionage charges. Joe Bennett tells Radhika Sanghani how it feels to spend Christmas without his mother and stepfather – and how this ordeal is affecting them all
It doesn’t feel real that my mum isn’t here this Christmas,” says Joe Bennett, 31. “This is a time to be with your family and celebrate one another. That’s what we always do. My mum loves Christmas. I feel so, so sad for her that she won’t be here.”
Dr Lindsay Foreman, a 53-year-old business coach from East Sussex, and her husband Craig, 53, a carpenter, are both detained in an Iranian prison on charges of espionage that Joe labels “completely bonkers”. They’ve been locked up ever since 3 January, when they were suddenly detained at the Iranian border, two months into an around-the-world motorcycle trip.
“They were so excited,” says Joe, who has given up his job in tech sales to campaign full-time for his parents’ release and manage their properties in the UK and Spain. “It was the trip of a lifetime. They’re young enough to be able to endure that kind of trip, and old enough to have the luxury of being able to do it.”
Both Craig and Lindsay had taken up motorcycling a few years earlier in homage to Lindsay’s brother, Ashley, who died in a motorcycle accident back in 1993. “Mum was like Bambi on ice at first,” says Joe, laughing. “She was hilarious to watch. But then she fell in love with it.”
Craig and Lindsay set off from the UK in November 2024, travelling through France, Spain, and Turkey, before reaching Iran. They’d planned to continue through Pakistan, India and Asia to finish in Australia, where Lindsay had a work conference. But they never left Iran.
“They had a few days in Iran where everything was great,” says Joe. “Mum was posting lots of photos, and couldn’t have been more complimentary of the people, the art, the architecture and how warm everyone was.”
On the final leg of their trip to reach the Pakistani border, she warned Joe there’d be a bad signal patch, and he might not hear from them. He wasn’t worried when the messages stopped for a few days – until he noticed she’d been online on WhatsApp and was reading his messages, but not replying.
“Mum wouldn’t do that. I knew something was wrong. But what actually happened to them just didn’t cross my mind as an option – you wouldn’t even think of it when they’re just two innocent people on holiday.”
Joe – along with his younger brother Toby, 20, and Kieran and Chelsea, Craig’s children from a previous marriage – contacted the Foreign Office. They were quickly told it was a missing persons case, and 10 days after their parents’ radio silence, they saw Iran had released a blurred photo of two detained UK nationals. It was Craig and Lindsay.
“My heart dropped,” says Joe. “It didn’t feel real and it shouldn't be real – the reality is that they’re innocent travellers. The whole thing was completely alien for months. I’d wake up feeling normal, and then within 15 seconds, my world came crashing down again. I kept thinking – what do we do? What’s the process? How do I get them home?’
The Foreign Office advised waiting and staying silent, explaining that there is a “significant risk of arrest, questioning or detention” for all British and British-Iranian nationals travelling to Iran. “We kept thinking they’d be released once they were questioned, because they were so obviously innocent,” explains Joe. “But that didn’t happen.”
Joe didn’t get to speak to his mum or stepfather on the phone for seven months. “It was traumatic. My mum is the most important person to me in this world. It was the worst thing not to be able to speak to her. It was heartbreaking for me – and for her.”
He still remembers their first phone call. “The floodgates opened as soon as we said hello. She broke down. But I didn’t want to waste the opportunity, so I said what I’d planned: I love you. We love you. We’re all here and fighting. Everything’s being taken care of. We’re trying to get you home as soon as possible. I wanted them to know they’re not forgotten, and they’re being fought for.”
He now knows that Craig and Lindsay were initially kept apart in solitary confinement for over 30 days before being moved to separate wards in Kerman prison. They did have six weeks in a cell together in spring, but were later transferred to separate wards in the notorious Evin prison in Tehran, where they still remain.
“It’s been horrific for them,” says Joe. “They went on hunger strike a few months ago because they were promised calls to their family and visits to each other that never happened. When they were transferred to Evin, they were put on a commercial flight and told they were being released. Then they landed and were blindfolded and handcuffed. I can’t imagine the toll that took on them. It’s psychological torture.”
The lack of clarity around their situation has been an additional torture. Craig and Lindsay went to court for their sentencing in September, but still have not been told the verdict that was reached. “We were told we’d found out in 10 days, but it’s Christmas now and we still don’t know,” says Joe. “They’re being arbitrarily detained – and we don’t even know how long for.” He is desperate for the Foreign Office to do more. “You can quite clearly tell that neither of them are spies in any way. The government can make a stand for what’s right but there doesn’t seem to be a willingness to do that. It’s not the first time this has happened either.”
He says the Foreign Office strongly urged him to avoid making contact with other families who have been in similar situations, like Richard Ratcliffe, whose wife, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, was detained in Iran for six years.
“I found that odd. But I’m rebellious, so I reached out to them, and the accounts I had were pretty damning of the Foreign Office. I want the government to change their stance and strategy because this ‘sit and wait’ isn’t working. I don’t want to wait another three years to have my parents home.”
A spokesperson for the Foreign Office told The Independent: “We are deeply concerned by reports that Craig and Lindsay Foreman have been charged with espionage in Iran. We continue to raise this case directly with the Iranian authorities.”
Joe hoped the government would bring his parents home for Christmas. He struggles to speak about how it feels for that not to have happened.
“It’s like you’re grieving a loss and you just feel so sad for them,” he says. “It affects us all, but they’re both stuck in this notoriously tough prison where daily life is basic and unsanitary. It’s so hard to hear your mum, the person who’s given and shown strength and is always optimistic, now broken and crying and begging to come home.”
Christmas was always an important time for his family to get together. Last year, Craig and Lindsay both flew home from Tunisia on their around-the-world trip, just to see the family for a few days at Christmas. “They’re an integral part of Christmas. Mum always wants a million photos at the table before we can eat our Christmas dinner,” says Joe, laughing. “I find it frustrating, but then I look back at all the family Christmases we have documented.”
He wishes his mum were there to document this Christmas, where the whole family would have had Christmas dinner at his great-aunt’s home in Gerrards Cross. “We always have a traditional Christmas. Good food – we’re big on cheese and wine – and everyone’s in good spirits, singing songs, playing silly games and enjoying everyone’s company. We do presents, but that’s not the important part for us – it’s about being together.”
This year, Joe is spending Christmas Day with his younger brother at his dad’s house. “It just feels so different. I feel guilty about having plans when Mum asks me about them.”
He hopes to speak to her on the phone on Christmas Day and is grateful that in the past month, after sporadic contact, they’ve been able to speak daily.
“It’s been a chance for us to reconnect, which is fantastic. And she feels less low and lonely. It’s particularly hard for Mum because Craig has a few foreign nationals in his cell, but hardly any of the women speak English.”
But Joe is always aware that things can change, like last week when his mum and stepdad were promised a visit together to celebrate Craig’s birthday. At the last minute, it was cancelled. “These little things mean so much to them, and when they’re taken away, it breaks both of them. It shows them they have no power.”
The toll it has taken on the entire family has been huge. Joe is desperate that this will be the last Christmas they spend apart. “You’ve got to have hope and optimism. They didn’t come home for Christmas. Maybe that was an ambitious target. But now I want them home for their 10th wedding anniversary in June.”
At the same time, he is realistic and has seen what has happened to other detained foreign nationals in Iran.
“Unfortunately, some of those cases have gone on for years. That is a possibility. You’ve got to be prepared for that side of things as well. But it won’t ease off my fighting. I’ll fight every day until they are home, and we are reunited as a family.”
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