appeared in court<\/a> in Tehran in the autumn.<\/p>\nThe foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, called their sentence \u201ccompletely appalling and totally unjustifiable\u201d.<\/p>\n
Foreman said she and her husband had been reduced to writing letters and going on hunger strike in a desperate attempt to seek justice.<\/p>\n
She said she had written to the Iranian authorities urging them to follow their own legal procedures and arguing that what was being done to them was unfair and unjust.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cWe have done what we can to be respectful of their system, to be patient with the legal process and believing that our innocence will prevail but it doesn\u2019t seem to be the case.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said she took responsibility for travelling to Iran against clear Foreign Office advice, but that she had tried to ask how overland trips were supposed to pass through what she described as \u201cthe messy middle\u201d, given there was not an \u201ceasy way through, round or over\u201d.<\/p>\n
She pointed out that Iranian tourist literature said \u201cguests are God\u2019s companions\u201d. \u201cIt\u2019s true they are the warmest people, except they live in circumstances which do not allow them to do that to the fullest extent,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI came here as part of a global initiative to focus on the good and to find unity and humanity, and that has not changed. In fact if anything my desire to find what connects us is even greater. I do not want conflict between our government or any government. As a nation I am proud of what we do and we must find a way to connect in a way which is fair and just.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lindsay\u2019s son, Joe Bennett, said the Iranian authorities had not presented any evidence of spying and he called on the British government to \u201cact decisively and use every available avenue\u201d to bring them home.<\/p>\n
The couple are being held in separate wings of the same prison in which the British-Iranian national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was detained. The facility, which Israel bombed during it 12-day war with Iran last June, is more overcrowded than usual after a wave of arrests during protests in January.<\/p>\n
Cases involving Iran\u2019s detention of foreign nationals tend to take many years of complex negotiations to resolve, and the British position is not likely to be helped by Donald Trump saying he is prepared to use UK bases in Diego Garcia and RAF Foulton to attack Iran. Keir Starmer spoke to Trump earlier this week, including about Iran.<\/p>\n
There are many foreign policy and bilateral disputes between Iran and the UK, but not one discrete issue on which Iran has been pressing the UK. In the case of Zaghari-Ratcliffe and her fellow dual-national prisoner Anoosheh Ashoori, Iran was seeking the return of \u00a3400m that it had paid for the delivery of Chieftain tanks ordered by the shah that were never delivered after the 1979 revolution.<\/p>\n
Foreman said she had been on an emotional rollercoaster but acknowledged: \u201cI am not shocked by anything that happens here. I am surrounded by people who are in worse situations and have had to live this their entire life.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel lucky that I\u2019ve had the life I have until this point, and hopefully one day for me it will end.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
#British #woman #jailed #years #Iran #describes #endurance #test #detention #news<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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