The Guardian:

Patrick Wintour
Diplomatic editor

The son of a British woman who has been held in Iran since January on espionage charges along with her husband has told the Guardian he lived with the agony of not knowing their whereabouts for a month or in the past fortnight whether they had been killed in the Israeli bombing on Tehran’s Evin prison on 23 June that left more than 70 dead.

Lindsay and Craig Foreman, both 52, were arrested on 3 January in Kervan City in southern Iran while travelling through the country from Armenia to Pakistan on a motorcycle journey to Australia. The Foreign Office were informed they were due to be taken to Tehran on around 8 June, raising fears they may have been caught in the Tehran attack, but on Tuesday they were informed they were still held in Kervan.

Joe Bennett, 31, said: “Every day not knowing brought a deeper kind of dread. Every night, the same questions with no answers. You go to sleep, afraid. You wake up still afraid. And the silence – the not knowing – is just unbearable. So many of our fears remain. How are they doing? Are they being looked after? How are they coping psychologically?

“Our belief is that Lindsay and Craig will be much safer when people know they’re there. Every piece of information we’ve received points to visibility as their greatest protection, when there are eyes on them, that’s when they’re safest. It took a lot of soul searching, but this isn’t about recklessness; it’s about responsibility. We’ve had to weigh risk and reward carefully, but we’re convinced that the best way to safeguard them is to ensure the British public cares and is paying attention. Silence puts them at greater risk. Awareness saves lives.”

He added: “Our biggest message is that we want to work with the UK government on their release, but because there is no noise around my mum and Craig, when Keir Starmer is around the table with the Iranians they are not going to be mentioned. We cannot operate in darkness, and we have to bring their names into the sunlight.”

So far British officials have visited the couple in detention three times, but UK diplomats are only now returning to Iran after the 12-day war between Israel and Iran. Bennett said he understood his mother and Craig were both suffering from the food and sleeping conditions.

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