Son Urges UK-Iran Prisoner Swap as British Couple Hit 30 Days on Hunger Strike
Updated
Updated · BBC.com · Jun 7
Son Urges UK-Iran Prisoner Swap as British Couple Hit 30 Days on Hunger Strike
3 articles · Updated · BBC.com · Jun 7
Summary
Joe Bennett said the UK should explore deporting an Iranian prisoner to help free his mother and stepfather, Craig and Lindsay Foreman, after their appeal against 10-year espionage sentences in Iran failed.
Craig Foreman is on day 30 of a hunger strike and Lindsay Foreman on day 21, Bennett said, calling their deteriorating condition the family's biggest concern amid limited contact and an opaque legal process now before Iran's Supreme Court.
Bennett said an Iranian national jailed in a maximum-security prison in the UK for 23 years appeared to be of strong interest to Tehran and claimed the government had missed the first real opening in 18 months.
David Lammy said prisoner-swap arrangements can exist but questioned whether this case was credible and declined details, while the Foreign Office has called the sentences completely unjustifiable and says it is still working for the couple's return.
Richard Ratcliffe, whose wife Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was previously detained in Iran, said such cases are often political theatre between governments and that a hunger strike can signal detainees have lost faith in both sides.