Folkestone man still waiting to hear from mum and stepdad detained in Iran

KentOnline / KMTV

A man from Folkestone says he hasn't heard from his mum and stepdad in 6 months after they were detained and charged with spying in Iran  The UK foreign office is working directly with the Iranian authorities. But Joe and his siblings say their parents were just tourists, talking to locals and enjoying different cultures.   Abby Hook reports...

Transcript

00:00Last consular visit was sort of around the middle of May, so we haven't had eyes on since

00:06everything that's happened over there has happened, the 12-day war. And one thing that

00:14really raised concerns for us was that we were told on June the 8th that they were potentially

00:20being transferred to Evin prison in Tehran. Subsequently, in the following weeks, that

00:25was their part of that prison was bombed. And we could get confirmation as to whether or not that

00:31happened or they were still in command. That was, it was upsetting, it was worrying, you know, that

00:39was probably the height of the fear, not that there's no, you're always worried because of the

00:44situation they're in. But just not knowing if they were there, if they're okay, was, yeah, it was horrible.

00:51So as of right now, today, you have no idea how they are?

00:55We don't know. In terms of their welfare, no. Obviously, we've been told by the Iranian MFA

01:03that they are in command, that they're in health and safety conditions and not to worry for their

01:09welfare, which is, you know, we have to take that on face value for what it is. And that's why we're

01:15sort of pushing to say, look, we need to know exactly where they are. We need to make sure that

01:19the consular visit for welfare and safety and health is paramount. And the third thing is we

01:26need to get them home urgently.

01:27And as you said there, the Foreign Office say they're providing consular advice and continue

01:33to raise the case with Iranian authorities. But what more do you think the government should

01:38be doing and what can they do?

01:40I think, you know, this again goes back to the point. We want to work with the Foreign

01:46Office. We're not here to be uncooperative. But also, you know, history shows that with

01:53sort of Nazanin Ratcliffe and Anusha Asori that there is a possibility to get home. They've done

02:00it before. So let's look at what that involved. Use it as a foundation and building block from

02:06there to start to look at what the theory of return is for Mum and Craig.

02:13How confident are you in their return when the UK government states that support is extremely

02:19limited in Iran?

02:23I'm confident that they'll come home. You know, you've got to have that belief. I think

02:28you'd go crazy if you didn't think that they're going to return at some point. And history again

02:33suggests that that at some point, not just for UK nationals, but for people around the

02:38world, that that will happen. You know, it isn't the first time that this is this has

02:45happened, unfortunately. And yeah, we just need to make sure that we are doing everything

02:50we can to get them back. And I think that was really why we wanted to do a public campaign,

02:56because there's quite a lot of talks going on in that part of the world at the moment.

03:00You know, if you sort of look at France with what Macron's doing, and the couple that detained,

03:05that have been detained over there for three years, there's movement in that case. So what

03:09we want to make sure is that if there are talks for a potential peace deal, we want to make

03:14sure that, you know, Lindsay and Craig, my mum and Craig's name are part of those conversations.

03:20And the Foreign Office actually does advise against all travel to Iran, saying that British

03:25nationals are at significant risk of arrest, questioning or detention. That's their words

03:30exactly. It also adds that just by having a British passport or connections to the UK

03:35can be reason enough to be detained. Did that advice not concern them at the time of travelling,

03:41knowing that they would be passing through Iran?

03:45They did. It did. Yeah. I mean, it concerned us all. And obviously, when you hear the news,

03:49it's kind of like, why would you go there? But that's a natural reaction. And we understand

03:54that people are going to be thinking the same thing. You know, it's like, why would you

03:57go to a country you advise not to go to? But it also begs the bigger question as to why

04:02not? Why can't people go to certain parts of the world? Why is that not allowed? You

04:06know, and they did everything that they should have done to go there.

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