The son of a British couple detained in Iran has mentioned the UK authorities will not be doing sufficient to safe their launch.
Lindsay and Craig Foreman, from East Sussex, had been taken into custody in Kerman in January throughout a bike tour world wide and later charged with espionage, which they deny.
In August, the pair had been moved to completely different jails in Tehran, earlier than being reunited in October at Evin jail, the place British-Iranian nationwide Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was held between 2016 and 2022.
Picture:
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. Pic: Reuters
‘You should rise up in your residents’
“They themselves are being very passive,” he mentioned of the UK authorities.
“They’ve got two UK citizens that are accused of spying for the British state, but they’re not coming out and defending them and calling [it out] for what it is.
“You should rise up in your residents and name it out.”
Speaking to The World With Dominic Waghorn, Mr Bennett dismissed Iran’s accusation of espionage against his mother and her partner – and accused the regime of “hostage taking”.
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Lindsay Foreman along with her son Joe Bennett. Pic: Household handout
‘They are not spies’
Requested whether or not he had any sympathy with the argument that making an excessive amount of of the scenario makes their launch much less seemingly, Mr Bennett mentioned there was “no justification” for the Overseas Workplace taking such an method.
“If they’re on charges of shoplifting, potentially that’s understandable, let’s see the court of law, let’s go through it if they’ve been caught of some wrongdoing,” he mentioned.
“They haven’t, and they’ve been accused of espionage, which is state-level political charges, right?
“They are not spies, it is fairly easy.”
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband Richard is supporting Mr Bennett’s case.
Picture:
Joe Bennett and Richard Ratcliffe
The Overseas Workplace warns all British and British-Iranian nationals towards all journey to Iran due to “significant risk of arrest, questioning, or detention”.
