Son of couple on hunger strike in Iran prison “deeply worried” as stepfather's sentence extended

London – A British man jailed in Iran on charges of espionage that officials call frivolous has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for two years, his family said Wednesday, as he and his colleagues weakened from a two-month hunger strike.

Craig Foreman, 52, was arrested in Iran with his wife Lindsay, 53, in January 2025 on a motorcycle trip from Europe to Asia. In February, 10 days before the US and Israel launched a joint attack on Iran, which triggered an ongoing war, they were charged with espionage and sentenced to 10 years in prison by a judge under US, UK and European Union sanctions for holding “show tests.”

They were imprisoned for more than 18 months, most of which are known to have been spent in Tehran's notorious Evin prison.

Joe Bennett, Lindsay's son and family spokesman, said in a statement on Wednesday that they had received “very serious reports” that his stepfather Craig had his sentence increased for speaking to the media.

“We understand that he was told that he was taken to his lawyer but he was taken before the judge and told about the additional sentence,” said Bennett. “Despite requests, he was not allowed a lawyer, no translator and no opportunity to defend himself.”

“We didn't think we could be horrified by their horrible treatment,” Bennett said, “but this time we're still in awe.”

A spokesman for Britain's Foreign Office told CBS News on Wednesday that the government is “immediately following up with Iranian authorities regarding the reported sentence.”

“A very worried son”

Craig Foreman began his hunger strike on May 9 and Lindsay joined him on May 18, according to the family. It is their second such protest, as they went on a previous hunger strike in November 2025.

“Both have lost a lot of weight and their health continues to deteriorate,” said the statement, adding that a letter written by the lovers asking the couple to stop their protest and start eating was prevented from reaching them in prison.

“Some days you wake up with hope,” Bennett told CBS News on Wednesday. “Some days you get news like Craig got a two-year sentence, and it feels like the floor is slipping out from under you again.”

“My life has become a cycle of talking to the government, lawyers, journalists, members of Parliament, at the same time I am a son who is very worried about his mother and Craig,” he said.

“The hardest part of all is the uncertainty,” Bennett added. “Every call makes you wonder if it's going to be good news or bad news, and you can't really turn it off.”

The chiefs were allowed to call their families after being denied the first seven months of their sentences, but since May they have been cut off again, according to the United States-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), which says they are also denied adequate health care. The organization says Craig has lost 35 pounds and Lindsay, who also suffers from dizziness and body tremors, has lost 30.

The couple has strongly denied allegations of espionage by Iranian authorities. In April, British lawyer Hamish Falconer, who is also under-secretary at the Foreign Office, said the Formans were “innocent visitors.”

Bennett says the family is frustrated by the constant ups and downs of the Iran war, knowing that Craig and Lindsay could be victims of US or Israeli strikes on the country.

“When the fight escalates, you know, we don't know what mom and Craig are like,” she told CBS News.

In June 2025, after the Foremans were to be moved to Evin prison, the Israeli army bombed the facility. Bennett and his family found out a month later that they had not been transferred.

After being held in different prisons, they were finally transferred to Evin in October 2025.

“Every headline you see brings another wave of us asking ourselves, 'Are they safe?'

“I'm begging for mercy”

In June, two United Nations experts called on Iran to release Formani.

“Lindsay and Craig Foreman should not be imprisoned,” said UN special rapporteurs Mai Sato and Dr. Alice Jill Edwards, when they wrote to Iranian authorities in April. “They appear to have been illegally arrested, prosecuted on questionable grounds, and convicted after a trial that failed to meet the guarantees of a fair trial.”

The British government, which has advised against all travel to Iran since May 2022, previously called the ten-year sentence “appalling and completely unjust.”

The family welcomed the announcement this week that the UK government had appointed its first envoy to support Britons arrested for complex offenses overseas. They are pressing the UK to officially recognize the couple's case as illegal detention.

Asked what he thought it would take to bring them home, Bennett said it would take “courage” and “political will.”

When the British government “makes these cases the most important, people come home. You see that with Nazanin [Zaghari-Ratcliffe]Anosheh [Ashoori] and others,” he said, referring to the Britons held in Iran who are to be released in 2022.

“Every case is different, but history shows that persistence, international cooperation and strong engagement are all important,” he said. “We ask with everything we have that they sympathize with us and are allowed to come home.”