British Couple Sentenced To 10 Years For Spying In Iran.

[WhatSharonSaidNext]

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

Well I've got two legs it doesn't mean I'm going to take a walk down the M1. IT'S FUCKING IRAN! Not France. So the Iranian government gave them a visa. It also gave it's citizens a vote ... Doesn't mean Jack in that country.

Really? They literally only had TWO options of how to spend their retirement?! 🤣

I know! If only there was another destination other than Surrey or Iran. 🤔

When they were arrested last year, the coverage included that they were filming local people for their documentary on 'a good life' and that's what caused attention to be drawn towards them by authorities. That was a naive and risky thing to be doing, but it's not just a case of them travelling through the country. Nonetheless, I feel very sorry for them and their families for what has developed.

I don’t think that anyone is gloating about it, just exasperated that the UK taxpayer will once again have to pick up the tab with regards to getting them out of somewhere they shouldn’t have gone to.

People know their own motivations and that they are harmless. They forget other people don’t! It’s a heavy dose of privilege and a bit of naivety.

I don’t understand why people travel to all sorts of places. It feels complicit, to me.

I can never understand these type of people who ignore all advice and warnings about the risks and likelihood of arrest in these countries.
Numerous brits over the years have found themselves imprisoned etc.doing similar.
It is arrogant and provocative .
There is so much of the world they could have chosen without these obvious risks.
I find it hard to sympathise , I care a lot more for the nightmare their families are left trying to sort out.

The FCO advises against all travel to Iran.

“FCDO advises against all travel to Iran. If you are a British national already in Iran, either resident or visitor, carefully consider your presence there and the risks you take by staying.

British and British-Iranian dual nationals are at significant risk of arrest, questioning or detention. Having a British passport or connections to the UK can be reason enough for the Iranian authorities to detain you.”

This is not the first example of the authorities arresting people and using them as bargaining chips.

The initial news stories said they were doing a 'research project' and had spoken to several Iranians about their lives. So not only did they enter Iran despite all the travel warnings, they were apparently engaging in activity the Iranian authorities could easily present as spying.

They are at least in the privileged position of being British and being held as political leverage, so they are still alive. I'm not sure an Iranian citizen would be able to say the same. The UK will also have to concede something to Iran in return for their release.

Whilst it was an incredibly naive and stupid thing to do, I wouldn't wish the conditions of Iranian prisons on anyone.

There is a type of closeted middle class people who’ve had very nice, safe lives who think terrible things happen to people who are not them. The type who think why not let trans women into womens changing rooms because lovely Hugo (now Jocasta) would never do any harm.

Reality comes at you fast in certain situations.

I do feel sorry for the conditions they are living in now, along with their Iranian cell mates.

Well obviously post-Brexit the Costa del Sol is off the cards, so it had to be Iran

I'll reserve my sympathy for other people. I really can't understand what possessed them to think travelling across Iran was a good, safe move.

I mean going to Iran and asking random people in the streets what constitutes 'a good life' in the game of research is never going to go down well.

I expect she was asked details of the 'research', ie. name of the institution the research is under, permissions to interview people and everything else that needs to be carried out in any research in any country and she couldn't provide any official documents. So yes, of course it looks very dodgy.

Nonsense. There are over 190 countries in the world they could have chosen 😂

Whether borne out of ignorance or optimism, it’s incredibly arrogant of them to believe they could ignore government warnings, and that it’d be totally fine for them to just cruise through a country that’s at loggerheads with the West, has form for state brutality and taking foreign hostages, and is basically medieval in its approach to justice.

They’re paying a hell of a price for their stupidity, though, and whilst YADNBU to be pissed off that a lot of time and money and diplomatic resource will now need to be thrown at rescuing them from this completely avoidable situation, it’s somewhat reassuring that people don’t get abandoned to rot in foreign prisons just because they’ve behaved like entitled dicks.

Jeepers 😯

Does it being a dangerous country make it more attractive would you say, or is it that you would think the foreign office were being too cautious? I’m asking as you are perhaps on a similar wavelength to the couple?

ive been lots of places but never been anywhere risky, Nepal perhaps where there were armed guards in Kathmandu and a curfew and china where my husband had a rifle aimed at him when asking for directions from a security post outside an office and we generally felt an air of tension.

I actually think the foreign office should have a policy that states if you visit somewhere that they warn you not to then they should not spent a considerable amount of time and tax payers money trying to bail them out. You chose to go against advice and to be honest common sense so live with the consequences.

CanIHelpItIfImALittleTense

You do seem to be a little tense.........what's up? 😂

I live nowhere near Surrey.
I completely understand wonderlust, curiosity and the realization of the passing of time but I also have a lot more common sense than this couple .

I’m very sorry for them.

But I also find their naivety hard to comprehend. Are they in fact spies or just naive? Is it Western arrogance or ignorance that makes some people think that other countries and cultures share the same values and justice system as we do?

In some countries if you’re from the U.K., USA or similar you are not a human being but a bargaining chip. Refusing to understand that in the face of all evidence to the contrary is odd.

They are the tedious bourgeois hellhole. It’s the bourgeois dinner party “oh, but we didn’t go to any of the ghastly tourist places” that led to this shit show in the first place. There isn’t a particularly safe or easy route from Armenia to almost anywhere south or east but you have to be pretty bourgeois to think that your class, race, nationality and sense of adventure mean you can go to Iran without the tedious consequences meant for the lower orders.

What about the diplomats that have to try and sort this out. Any thoughts on them or how much it actually costs. Plenty of places to explore in the world without putting others at risk at the same time. Posting as - not a Surrey type or one living there and frankly the comment about that is just pathetic.

I don’t think the British government should bail them out. The advice was not to travel to Iran but people have the freedom to make their own choices and take their own risks.

They made an informed decision and travelled to Iran and go against the advice because they felt they knew better. Not only did they travel taking the known risk of being arrested, they also thought it would be a fantastic idea to film local people for a documentary or whatever it was. Good luck to them! Maybe they can write diaries in prison and have them published, hopefully that will be even more exciting for them.

Sorry, I have no sympathy for them. Like pp have said, there are people who have family members in Iran and haven’t been able to see them for years because they know the risks. I have every sympathy for those people.