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

packs bags and camera
Bye!

Whereas the real problem is the people who buy couscous from Lidl and think that this delightful foray into exotica is a call to saddle their bicycle and pedal off to dangerous parts of the world, where the Foreign Office says you should not go, in the expectation that somehow the UK will bail them out if it goes wrong.

Them and the types that have such narrow little worlds that they can’t get away from the 70s Surrey/dinner party/Waitrose tropes and post their tired little messages on here.

No go topless it'll make the trip that much better.

Very stupid thing to do but we have a responsibility towards our citizens.

I have some sympathy in that 10 years in an Iranian prison is an incredibly harsh punishment for doing something foolish, but at the same time it was foolish.
It's not as if British nationals being held on spurious grounds hasn't been in the news for years. It'll be an incredibly hard wake up call but unfortunately was ultimately predictable.
I have a massive amount of sympathy for Britons of Iranian descent who cannot risk visiting family there because of this.

Jfc you’re so naive.

Yeah, cos excitement in retirement is obviously a binary choice between spicing up your Ocado order, or spending it shitting in a concrete hole and getting poked with a cattle prod …

Not every traveller to ‘distant lands’ is stupid enough to believe that their ‘curiosity and Wanderlust’ 🙄 justifies venturing into openly hostile territories, or arrogant enough to be surprised when that decision proves catastrophic.

Nothing more tedious than a Barefoot Warrior Free Spirit who thinks they’re the only one with a copy of Lonely Planet from 1982.

I've got a lucky charm with a Star of David on it, I could lend you that.

I do have sympathy for them and particularly their families who are left trying to sort out this shit show but my goodness, their own son has documented how they were told not to go
there, warned by the FO, friends and family alike yet they still thought it wouldn’t happen to them. I saw a social media post by them where they said they knew it was a risk but believed more in the goodness of the people. I’m sorry but that is such a naive, utterly deluded take. I imagine they will be there for years now while the Iranian govt use them as bargaining chips. Foolish in the extreme.

Whilst I have some sympathy for the family, who did try to tell them not to go, I think their anger should be at the couple not the government. They bought this on entirely themselves.

To think that going to Iran , against foreign office advice and, then while you are there interviewing and filming locals was just incredibly bloody stupid. At best naive but probably just arrogance that they're nice white people and nothing bad will happen to us. Is their treatment and sentence fair? No. But it was completely predictable and avoidable.

Yes they were fools. Especially right now things in Iran are very unsettled. It seems to me that it would be very difficult to avoid seeing that in the news.

FWIW I always wonder also about people who holiday in China. Sure it might be ok, but the Chinese have no problem with taking political prisoners if it suits them.

I imagine some sort of comedy sketch about a bike tour of Iran, Libya, and Syria... a bit dark but it really seems like some people are so determined that every place is "nice" they don't think.

They were thoroughly irresponsible and ridiculously entitled to go there in the first place, and similar stupid to conduct themselves in the way they did when they were there.

They don’t deserve ten years on what are no doubt bullshit espionage charges, but they’re clearly lack in the common sense department.

They were either very foolish or very bad spies.

Maybe this is the answer, they have some kind of Trump Derangement Syndrome. Trump is mean to Iran so it must be a nice kind place, really.

Why did they go I haven't seen any interviews will their family. Was there some kind of cognitive impairment do they think or just arrogance and stupidity?

I think you can feel sorry for them AND think it was stupid.

A few years ago, a couple of colleagues went to one of those big migrant camps in Calais, taking various supplies. They thought they would be greeted by grateful refugees and sup in their tents. They were attacked and robbed.

Considering Iran and the UK are at their lowest point politically, they really were very very stupid and naive.
It wouldn’t surprise me if they were imprisoned for a very long time.

They are in the FO part of FAFO. They were warned, thought they knew better and surprise surprise they didnt know better than the foreign office. No sympathy at all.

I have sympathy but I am always astounded by tales of Westerners not having a clue about how different the Middle East is. Like the people who go to Dubai, think it’s Marbella and then end up in prison, it’s about not really understanding the cultural differences.

I’ve been to Jordan, Israel and Lebanon and they were incredible places to visit but I was very very aware that I was in extremely different places. I wouldn’t go back to any of them though, as incredible as they were.
It must be very hard if you have family somewhere like Iran.

I read an interview a while ago with the son I think and he said his mum thought it was all overblown and she knew that inherently there are good people in the world and they would be fine.

Oh God the naivety of this. Why not give to the charities who know what they are doing. Desperate people will do desperate things so I would fully expect to be robbed

Isn’t the risk more around doing business in China rather than travelling as a tourist?

I think this also. We KNOW they were foolish but for the op to say she cannot/does not have any sympathy is cold.

Definitely a cautionary tale. I wonder if they were planning to do some kind of salt path shtick with their footage. Really sad for them and their family, but how naive.