I recently wrote to the Foreign Secretary, alongside 40 other MPs, regarding the case of British citizens Craig and Lindsay Foreman, arbitrarily detained in Iran.
The 3rd of January marked one year of their arbitrary detention in Iran, and we are concerned that no progress has been made towards securing their release.
Craig and Lindsay’s trial, conducted under conditions we would not recognise as legally sound, ended many weeks ago and they are awaiting the verdict. However, the verdict has not yet been issued despite Iranian law dictating this should be released within one week of the conclusion of the trial. The Foreign Affairs Committee’s 2023 Inquiry documented that it is much more difficult to secure an individual’s release after conviction. Deferring to the Iranian judicial system is an illogical response when we know Iran is not a Rule of Law compliant country particularly for trials before the Revolutionary Courts.
We know that Craig and Lindsay’s fair trial rights have already been violated, that they face poor conditions in prison, and that the charges are completely falsified.
We are concerned that after the release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori in 2022, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has still not progressed institutional learning on how to resolve cases of arbitrary detention swiftly and successfully. By way of comparison, France has recently secured the release of two of their citizens, Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris, after taking bolder and more creative steps to secure their release (such as publicly condemning their detention and initiating legal action before the International Court of Justice). These steps are also in line with the recommendations of
the recent report by the Independent International Panel on Arbitrary Detention in State-to-State Relations.
The Government must be informed by mistakes in past cases and urgently secure Craig and Lindsay’s release before their wrongful conviction.
