Craig and Lindsay Foreman have been given 10-year sentences in Iran, deepening a detention that their family says has left them cut off and frightened for their safety. The British couple were arrested in January 2025 while travelling through the country on an around-the-world motorcycle trip and are being held in Tehran’s Evin prison.

The pair were sentenced on espionage charges, which they deny. Their son, Joe Bennett, said he had not spoken to his mother for over a week and warned that the family no longer knows whether the couple are safe. “We simply do not know if my mum and Craig are safe,” he said. “I have not spoken to my mum for over a week now. Every day of silence makes it worse. We don’t know what is happening to them and we are terrified for them.”

Bennett said the family believes telephone access was cut off earlier this month after the couple gave a media interview about their detention. In that interview, the pair said they felt abandoned and believed the channels they had tried to use to secure their release were closing. Bennett also said Craig had warned the family that they might have to stop eating if their calls were taken away, a sign of how much they had come to rely on the brief contact they were still allowed.

Lindsay Foreman gave her first interview since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on 28 February, describing the conditions inside prison during the attacks. She said she could hear “the whistling noise of missiles and the hum of the drones,” and said “people were hyperventilating, screaming.” She added: “When the buildings shake, there is nowhere to go. These buildings are not designed for safety. There’s no fire escape, there’s no access to the outside for us. If the building collapses, that will be the end.”

The case has become more urgent as Britain’s travel warning for Iran remains in force. The Foreign Office has advised against all travel to the country and says British and British-Iranian nationals face a significant risk of arrest, questioning or detention. It said in February that it had temporarily withdrawn its staff from Iran because of the threat of US strikes against the country, and has previously said that having a British passport or connections to the UK can be enough reason for Iranian authorities to detain someone.

A spokesman previously described the jail sentences as completely appalling and totally unjustifiable. For the Foremans’ family, the immediate concern is not the length of the sentence but the silence now surrounding it. The couple, both British nationals from East Sussex, remain in Evin prison without contact, and their family says the loss of phone access may be linked to speaking out publicly about their detention.

What happens next is whether any outside pressure restores contact before the case slips further out of view. For now, the detention of Craig and Lindsay Foreman has moved from a legal dispute into a communication blackout, and their family says that is what makes the situation most dangerous.