Protests force prison transfer of UK woman held in Iran

Above, the gate of Evin prison in Tehran on July 1, 2025 after being hit by Israeli air strikes. (AFP)

• Lindsay and Craig Foreman have been held since January as they passed through Kerman, in central Iran, while on a round-the-world motorbike trip

LONDON: A British woman held in Iran on spying charges has been moved into the same prison as her husband after protests reportedly flared in her women’s jail, her family said Tuesday.
Lindsay and Craig Foreman, both 52, have been held since January after Iranian authorities seized the couple as they passed through Kerman, in central Iran, while on a round-the-world motorbike trip.
Lindsay Foreman was transferred last week from Qarchak women’s prison to Evin prison in Tehran, where her husband Craig is also detained, the family said in a statement sent to AFP.
They were told of the move by the couple’s state-appointed lawyer in Tehran.
While the family said it was “relieved” that Lindsay Foreman had left Qarchak, it noted Evin remains “one of the most notorious prisons in the world. We cannot let slight relief turn into complacency.”
The couple’s son Joe Bennett said the family had been “sick with worry” over reports of the treatment of prisoners in Qarchak.
Iran Human Rights, a Norway-based NGO, said in late September that 19 women had gone on hunger strike “due to serious problems with illness and access to medical care” in the prison.
And the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) said three women had died there through lack of medical care.
Human rights groups have repeatedly criticized the prison’s reportedly dire conditions.
“Mum being moved to Evin might mean a little more access, maybe a phone call, maybe slightly better treatment, but this doesn’t change the bigger picture,” Bennett said.
“She is still an innocent British woman, wrongfully imprisoned in Iran.”
Relatives only spoke to the pair for the first time in early August and have grown increasingly frustrated at the handling of their case.
The couple is still waiting to hear their verdict after they appeared in court on September 27 on the spying charges.
Bennett said the family was due to meet Foreign Minister Yvette Cooper on Thursday.
“We need a clear plan from the UK government. They cannot allow this to drift any longer,” Bennett said.