British woman detained in Iran resumes hunger strike

A British woman detained in an Iranian prison has resumed a hunger strike after more than sixteen months in custody, as her partner enters his twelfth day without food in an escalating protest against their imprisonment.

Craig Foreman, a carpenter, and Lindsay Foreman, a life coach from East Sussex, were arrested in January 2025 while travelling through Iran on a round-the-world motorcycle journey.

The couple were later sentenced to ten years in prison on espionage charges they vehemently deny.

ITV News has established that Mr Foreman has refused food since May 9, despite receiving warnings from jail officials that the protest breached the terms of his imprisonment. Mrs Foreman is believed to have joined the hunger strike on Tuesday.

The couple’s access to prison phones in Tehran’s Evin prison was cut off earlier this month following a media interview they gave from custody, meaning they are no longer allowed to update family members about their conditions.

Mr Foreman is thought to have begun his protest shortly after calls with loved ones were withdrawn.

Tightly controlled phone access between the couple and the outside world had been used to intensify psychological pressure during their detention, family members have said.

In February, the Foreign Office temporarily withdrew British staff from Iran due to fears of US and Israeli strikes against the country. The UK government continues to advise against all travel to Iran, warning of a “significant risk of arrest, questioning or detention”.

The Foremans granted a series of interviews to ITV News from prison, before their phone access was cut. Lindsay Foreman said she had come to terms with the possibility she might die in prison, fearing conflict in the region could leave nobody inside the Iranian system willing or able to secure their release.

She described trying to create moments of normality inside Evin prison – running laps of the courtyard and baking shortbread for fellow inmates, as explosions echoed across Tehran.

“When the bombs were going off at night, in those first four nights, we were all hiding under the bed,” she said. “People were hyperventilating, screaming.”

“The first day you could feel it — the impact of the bombs, the rockets, the missiles. The building shook. I was actually on the phone to Joe when one of the bombs struck quite close by.”

In a separate interview, Craig Foreman said his message to the British government was a simple one: “Help. Full stop.

“I don’t understand why we have been here for 13 months, being held hostage in 2026. In what day and age does this happen? When does this end?”

He described being held in an eight-foot cell with “a hole in the floor and a sink”, adding: “Emotionally and physically, it broke me to pieces.”