Detained Britons charged with espionage in Iran

Detained Britons Craig and Lindsay Foreman have been charged in Iran with espionage, the country's judiciary news agency has said.

Mr and Mrs Foreman were arrested in the city of Kerman in January but news of their detention, on unspecified security charges, emerged last week.

Judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir said that the couple, both aged 52, had "entered Iran under the guise of tourists" and "gathered information in multiple provinces of the country".

The couple had been on a motorbike trip around the world and had planned to stay in Iran for five days before they were charged with espionage, or spying, by Iranian authorities.

Mr and Mrs Foreman were heading for Australia on their journey across the globe and had crossed into Iran from Armenia on 30 December and were planning to be in Pakistan by 4 January.

In a series of social media posts before they were detained, the couple - who moved from East Sussex to start a new life in Spain in 2019 - described their joy at being in Iran.

Lindsay Foreman, a life coach with a doctorate in psychology, said she was "having an amazing time".

Her husband Craig, who is a carpenter, spoke of the "lovely people" of a "lovely country".

Announcing the charges, Mr Jahangir said that the couple had been under surveillance by provincial intelligence agencies and were "subsequently arrested as part of a coordinated intelligence operation".

He added: "These individuals were co-operating with front organisations linked to the intelligence services of hostile and Western countries under the pretence of research and investigative activities."

The chief justice of Kerman province, Hojatoleslam wal-Muslimeen Hamidi, said: "According to intelligence and security agency monitoring, the connection of these individuals with several institutions affiliated with intelligence services has been confirmed, and further investigations are ongoing."

The couple had travelled from Armenia into Iran and planned to stay for five days before moving on to Pakistan

Alison Smith, a former neighbour of the couple, described them as "just normal family people".

Ms Smith told the BBC she was a "bit surprised" by the couple's decision to travel to Iran, but said they probably "thought they were going to be going on an adventure".

They had been on "loads of adventures" in the past, Ms Smith said.

"They went all over the place," she said, describing the pair as "very sporty, very adventurous".

The couple had appeared on an episode of Channel 4's A New Life in the Sun in 2022 to showcase their lives as expats in the southern Spanish region of Andalucia.

A spokesperson for the Foreign Office said "we are deeply concerned by reports that two British nationals have been charged with espionage in Iran", adding officials are continuing to raise the case "directly" with Iranian authorities.

The Foreign Office is providing the detainees with consular assistance and supporting their family members, the spokesperson said.

The Foreign Office's official advice is against all travel to Iran, saying British and British-Iranian dual nationals are at "significant risk of arrest, questioning or detention".

Having a British passport or connections to the UK "can be reason enough for the Iranian authorities to detain you", it adds.

In recent years, Iran has arrested dozens of Iranians with dual nationality or foreign permanent residency, mostly on spying and national security charges. At least 15 have had links to the UK.

Human rights groups say they are often held as leverage, released only when Iran receives something in return.

Richard Ratcliffe, whose wife Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was detained in Iran for six years, said Foreign Office travel advice would be "clearer" if it reflected the "risks of hostage-taking" in the country.