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British Couple Sentenced To 10 Years For Spying In Iran.

155 replies

WhatSharonSaidNext · 19/02/2026 08:56

Year after year we see high profile campaigns to release prisoners in Iran on spurious charges. Family members petition and lobby the Foreign Office to intervene as the years slip by. You would have to be living under a rock somewhere not to know that Iran is not a safe country for westerners to travel through and that if you do decide to go against advice and common sense you may not be coming home any time soon.

In the past the Foreign Office have specifically warned British citizens not to travel there. Yet still we have these stupid people who continue to go there risking their own safety expecting the foreign office to spend tax payers money bailing them out when it all goes wrong. I wonder how much of that gets paid back when they eventually get released and sell their stories? Seriously, what on earth is wrong with these people? Why do they think they are so important? Can’t possibly avoid one of the most corrupt countries on the planet, oh no, let’s just drive straight through it. What could possibly go wrong? …

Am I really being unreasonable to think these people are being more than a little bit irresponsible to put themselves in these situations and then expect that just because they are British they have some sort of immunity from anything happening to them?

Is it honestly reasonable for a retired British couple to travel through one of the most politically dangerous countries on earth as part of a nice biking tour, thinking it would be a good idea?

And rather than just clicking you are being unreasonable for the sake of it, could people explain why they think it is a perfectly reasonable thing to do please? Why it’s reasonable for a retired British couple to risk their own safety travelling to a country where everyone knows it is complete madness for a British citizen to travel and why it’s reasonable to expect the Government to sort your own stupidity out afterwards at the cost of tens of thousands of pounds, in a country that despises Britain and is widely known to routinely detain British nationals to use as political pawns?

https://news.sky.com/story/british-couple-sentenced-to-10-years-in-prison-in-iran-family-say-13503275

OP posts:
MrsBennetsPoorNervesAreBack · 19/02/2026 09:10

They were very foolish.

We have an Iranian friend who has been living in the UK for many years and has a family here. He has never taken his children to Iran to meet his mother because he knows it is just too much of a risk. These people had no compelling reason to go there. They were stupid and irresponsible.

Obviously, I hope that they will be freed, but this is a mess entirely of their own making.

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 19/02/2026 09:10

TBH I never understand why anyone would ever risk visiting that rogue-state country.

Around here there are quite a lot of Iran-origin people who moved to the U.K. in the 70s, and now often have long-grown up children (the dental practice I use is staffed almost entirely by such people) - who I’m sure would be very interested to visit their ‘ancestral’ homeland, but have far too much sense to risk it.

CanIHelpItIfImALittleTense · 19/02/2026 09:10

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BrinkWomanship · 19/02/2026 09:04

They were very foolish. What an incredibly tough lesson to learn.

Sassiskt · 19/02/2026 08:58

It always seemed like a very stupid thing to do to me. Oh yes the beauty of ancient Persian empire sounds amazing, but it’s a country run by knuckle dragging despots. Why go?