Son of British couple detained in Iran fears they have been abandoned by UK as regime packs jails with protesters

The son of a British couple detained in Iran has said that his parents have been crammed into cells with protesters and offered no clear plan for their release after the embassy closed abruptly over fears of an imminent US attack.

Lindsay and Craig Foreman were arrested while travelling in Iran last January and subsequently charged with espionage, which they deny. They are currently being held at Tehran’s infamous Evin prison.

Ms Foreman’s son, Joe Bennett, said they are living in “hell on repeat”, with cells “overcrowded” because of Iran’s crackdown on nationwide protests.

“It’s beyond imagination,” he told The Independent. “They wake up with rats in their beds. They’ve got rats in the kitchen. It sounds like hell on earth.”

“More have been piled into the rooms so there’s not as much space,” he said, adding that his mother is “not leaving her bed at the moment because there's just either no room or she doesn't feel up to it”.

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Mr Bennett, from Folkestone in Kent, said that he has been able to call his mother since the demonstrations broke out, and worries that it is becoming a “more dangerous situation”.

“It's just a constant worry. You hang up the phone and your anxiety goes through the roof because you just don't know what's going to happen.”

“There are fights daily and quite explosive ones that I've heard when on the phone to her, which must be absolutely petrifying because you not only don't want to be dragged into it, you don't know what they're fighting over. It’s alien.”

He worries that the closure of the embassy has left them without a clear plan for what to do if they are released. He said the Foreign Office told him they were "assessing the situation".

“There's a huge possibility that something could happen,” he emphasised. “Something could happen at any point.”

He said he has told his parents, “Just make sure the plan at the moment doesn’t include going to the British Embassy, because they’re not there.”

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The ambassador and consular staff were removed on Wednesday following a security assessment as Donald Trump threatened Iran with military action.

Mr Bennett said that he was told that the British authorities would try to organise remote consular assistance while the embassy is closed.

“That doesn’t make any sense,” he said. “You can’t provide consular assistance remotely because you can’t go to check their welfare. And there’s no internet. So I don’t quite understand what that means.

“It just baffles me. If you’re not there, you need to give them something to do in that scenario.”

Iran imposed a nationwide internet blackout on 8 January as protests against the government intensified. It relaxed some of the restrictions earlier this week by allowing mobile phone calls out of the country, but not in.

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Mr Bennett has been able to reach Mr and Ms Foreman in prison since their November hunger strike and has been trying to “share information with them so that they are better informed” as he campaigns for their release.

“What upsets me is that they're having to live through that and I feel powerless. That's the one thing I hate, is that I feel powerless,” he said.

He recognised that while he can clear his head and go for a walk or see his friends or family, “they can’t do any of that”.

“They just live in hell on repeat. It must be torture.”

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He said: “We’re a bit stuck and you try to turn to the people who you think could make a difference and it feels like there’s no solidarity.”

“It feels like we’re trying to convince them to do the right thing. If your quiet diplomacy hasn’t worked, publicly defend them. We haven’t heard our own prime minister whisper their names once. And I think that’s scandalous.

“We’re a year on, and yet there’s this tendency not to rock a capsized boat. It doesn’t make any sense.”

An FCDO spokesperson told The Independent: "We remain deeply concerned that Craig and Lindsay Foreman have been charged with espionage in Iran. We continue to raise this case directly with the Iranian authorities.

“We continue to provide Craig and Lindsay with consular assistance and remain in close contact with their family members.”