An Iranian court has sentenced Britons Lindsay and Craig Foreman to 10 years in jail for espionage, their family announced on Thursday as they hit out at their treatment.
The couple were arrested in January 2025 while travelling through the country on an around-the-world motorcycle journey and have consistently denied Tehran's spying claims.
"My parents have now been sentenced to 10 years following a trial that lasted just three hours and in which they were not allowed to present any defence," their son Joe Bennett said in a statement, adding relatives were "deeply concerned".
Read moreBritish couple held in Iran moved to 'worst' prisons, family says
British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper on Thursday condemned the couple's sentencing as "completely appalling and totally unjustifiable".
"We will pursue this case relentlessly with the Iranian government until we see Craig and Lindsay Foreman safely returned to the UK and reunited with their family," Cooper said in a statement.
The couple were first detained as they passed through Kerman, in central Iran, while on a round-the-world motorbike trip.
Tehran has insisted they are spies, with Iran's judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir last year alleged that the Foremans entered Iran "posing as tourists" and gathered information before their arrest.
Lindsay Foreman is currently being held in the women's section of Evin Prison in Tehran while Craig is in its political wing.
The prison has long been criticised by international human rights organisations for its dire conditions and treatment of prisoners.
Their family have raised concerns about conditions, including cramped cells and lack of food, as well as a lack of legal representation and urged the British government to secure their freedom.
Bennett has said the couple were "caught in the middle" of geopolitical tensions between Tehran and other Western countries, most notably the United States, as well as "very difficult" UK-Iran relations.
He and other relatives have been campaigning publicly on the case ever since their arrests.
They marked the one-year anniversary of the detentions by handing in a petition to Downing Street signed by tens of thousands of people urging the British government to do more to free them.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
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