Detention of Craig and Lindsay Foreman has turned into a health emergency in Iran, where Craig Foreman has been on hunger strike for 55 days and Lindsay Foreman for 46 days inside Evin prison. The couple, both 53, were arrested 18 months ago and later sentenced to 10 years in prison on espionage charges they deny.
Their family says the cut-off in phone contact in May has made it harder to judge how they are coping, while United Nations human rights experts have said the hunger strike has reached the stage of a medical emergency. Craig and Lindsay Foreman have survived on water, with a little milk and honey, since the protest began.
Evin prison and the hunger strike
Craig Foreman and Lindsay Foreman are being held in Evin prison, and their protest has now stretched long enough to make basic monitoring the family’s central concern. Joe Bennett, Lindsay Foreman’s son, said: “I don't want to think about the worst happening” and added: “My biggest concern is time. As each day passes, it's a day closer to potential harm.”
Joe Bennett also said: “The concern, for us, is that at some point we are going to get a call saying Craig or Mum has been hospitalised. It's hard because we are just concerned for their health. It's a hell of a long time that they have been on [hunger strike] now – [for] Craig [it's] almost two months.”
He said he has researched hunger strikes and knows how much the body can endure, but he still fears the point at which endurance gives way to collapse. That fear has sharpened because the couple’s phone calls were cut off in May, leaving the family to rely on snatched messages that can take weeks to arrive.
Hugo Shorter in mid-June
The family’s concern deepened after a mid-June meeting with British ambassador Hugo Shorter, when Lindsay Foreman was described as alarmingly weak and much thinner. In a letter from Evin prison forwarded last week by a kind stranger, Lindsay Foreman said the couple were continuing their “freedom fast” because “We are continuing because we must expose the corruption and cruelty in this country.”
She also wrote: “The reality of the injustice thousands of innocent people are suffering every single day.” The letter framed the protest as a deliberate act of endurance rather than a temporary refusal of food, with Lindsay Foreman saying: “We hope that our short-term, temporary suffering can contribute to a long-term, permanent solution to the injustice and lies endured by both Iranians and foreigners.”
United Nations concern
United Nations human rights experts have demanded their urgent release and said the case raises grave concerns about state hostage-taking. They also said the hunger strike has reached the stage of a medical emergency, a level that puts the focus on whether the couple can remain stable long enough for any change in their detention to matter.
The family and friends are now drafting a letter imploring Craig Foreman and Lindsay Foreman to stop the protest in order to protect their health. That plea sits against Lindsay Foreman’s insistence that the couple will recover and live long, happy lives, and against Joe Bennett’s fear of the call he does not want to receive.
