British couple on new hunger strike in Iranian jail, family say
Lindsay and Craig Foreman, a British couple held in Iran on espionage charges, began a new hunger strike 15 days ago, their family said. The family and the UK Foreign Office described the couple's health condition as "serious" and called for their immediate release.
Lindsay and Craig Foreman, a British couple held since February 2024 in Tehran's Evin Prison, have been on a new hunger strike for the past 15 days, their family announced. The family said it had been closely monitoring their status after they had previously conducted a 28-day hunger strike in October 2025. The Foremans had entered Iran in January 2024 during a round-the-world trip and were detained in February.
Iran's Revolutionary Court sentenced the Foremans in September 2024 to 10 years in prison each; the indictment included a charge of "assisting foreign espionage services". The UK government rejects the charges and emphasises that no evidence beyond photographs the couple had taken documenting the terrain while crossing the Türkiye-Iran border has been presented. The couple left two adult children behind in the United Kingdom.
In a statement on 20 May 2026, the UK Foreign Office said the couple's health condition was "a matter of serious concern" and that it had requested urgent talks with Iranian authorities. The consular channel between Iran and the United Kingdom has been operating at limited capacity since the outbreak of the war in autumn 2025. The Foremans' situation has become one of the test cases for the UK's humanitarian appeals to Iran.
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