A British couple who had been on a motorcycle tour around the world were detained in Iran, Britain’s foreign office said on Saturday.
The couple, Craig and Lindsay Foreman, were last heard from on social media in early January. But this week, Iranian state media reported that two British nationals had been detained on suspicion of “security crimes.”
Britain’s foreign office confirmed their detention after the Iranian reports, and on Saturday issued a statement on behalf of the couple’s family.
“This unexpected turn of events has caused significant concern for our entire family, and we are deeply focused on ensuring their safety and well-being during this trying time,” the family said.
Mr. and Ms. Foreman, both in their mid-50s, were on a motorcycle tour to Australia, where Ms. Foreman, was set to deliver a paper at a conference on psychology. They reside in Spain, where Ms. Foreman worked as a psychologist and life coach and Mr. Foreman as a carpenter.
The couple’s detention first came to light when Iranian state media published a photograph of Britain’s ambassador to Iran, Hugo Shorter, meeting with two British citizens accused of “security crimes.”
Iranian state media blurred the couple’s faces in the image, taken at the office of the prosecutor in Kerman, a city more than 600 miles east of the capital, Tehran.
In its statement, the family said it was “actively engaging with the British government and relevant authorities, working diligently to navigate the complexities of this matter.”
It is unclear how long the couple has been held in Iran. Before their detention, the Foremans shared their travels on social media. They last posted on Jan. 3, saying they were in Iran.
“To put your minds at rest, we are having the most amazing time in Iran,” the couple said in a Facebook post, adding that they were traveling with a tour guide. On Instagram, Ms. Foreman posted a picture of herself meeting a theologian at a madrasa in Isfahan, where she wrote that “travel continues to teach me that humanity’s core is shared.”
The couple had crossed into Iran from Armenia, and were planning to head to Pakistan next, they had said.
“The UK government advises against all but essential travel to these areas, and the news paints a pretty grim picture,” they posted on Facebook on Dec. 30. “We want to find out for ourselves. That is why we are here.”
The post included two images side-by-side: one of the Foreign Office’s orange and yellow map of Iran, advising British citizens not to travel to Iran, and another of a photo of the green lawns of a mosque, an image whose location was pinned to Norduz, near Iran’s border with Armenia.
The foreign office advises against all travel to Iran, issuing a warning that “British and British-Iranian dual nationals are at significant risk of arrest, questioning or detention.”
Iran has repeatedly jailed foreigners and dual nationals over the last decade, including an Iranian-American citizen and an Italian journalist detained last year and a Swedish E.U. official arrested in 2023.
Several British-Iranian dual-citizens have been among those arrested, among them Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was held for six years; Aras Amiri, a 32-year-old art student; and Abbas Edalat, an academic and antiwar activist. Ms. Amiri, arrested while visiting her grandmother and accused of espionage, was released after three years in prison, and Mr. Edalat was released after several months.
Human rights groups have said many of these detentions are part of a deliberate policy to extract concessions from other countries, including prisoner swaps.
