00:00It was panic. It was daunting. It was not knowing what was going to happen.
00:07A spokesperson for Iran's judiciary said in February, the couple had entered Iran under the guise of tourists and gathered information in several parts of the country.
00:17How did you feel when you found that out?
00:22I was interested because, you know, just the type of people they are, it depends what they class as gathering information.
00:30You know, from our understanding, they were having conversations with people that lived in the country.
00:35And it was a shock at first. You know, you kind of don't think that it was ever going to unfold into what it has.
00:46If they were under sort of detention and investigation, you kind of just think, well, they're going to do their investigation and that'll be it. Right.
00:53You know, they haven't done anything wrong. But it was just it was it was panic.
01:00It was daunting. It was not knowing what was going to happen.
01:05But as I say, at the very start, we just thought, oh, they'll do their sort of investigation and that'll be it.
01:10They'll be on their way. And how much do you actually know about how they are right now?
01:17Limited. So right now, very limited.
01:19The last consular visit was sort of around the middle of May.
01:24So we haven't had eyes on since everything that's happened over there has happened.
01:29The 12 day war.
01:30And one thing that really raised concerns for us was that we were told on June the 8th that they were potentially being transferred to Evin prison in Tehran.
01:44Subsequently, in the following weeks, that was their part of that prison was bombed.
01:48And we couldn't get confirmation as to whether or not that happened or they were still in command.
01:54That was it was upsetting.
01:58It was worrying. You know, that was probably the height of the fear.
02:01Not that there's no you're always worried because of the situation they're in.
02:06But just not knowing if they were there, if they're OK, was horrible.
02:12So as of right now, today, you have no idea how they are.
02:17We don't know in terms of their welfare.
02:20No, obviously, we've been told by the Iranian MFA that they are in command, that they're in health and safety conditions and not to worry for their welfare, which is, you know, we have to take that on face value for what it is.
02:32And the Foreign Office actually does advise against all travel to Iran, saying that British nationals are at significant risk of arrest, questioning or detention.
02:43That's their words exactly.
02:44It also adds that just by having a British passport or connections to the UK can be reason enough to be detained.
02:51Did that advice not concern them at the time of travelling, knowing that they would be passing through Iran?
02:58They did. It did. Yeah.
03:00I mean, it concerned us all. And obviously, when you hear the news, it's kind of like, why, why, why would you go there?
03:05But that's a natural reaction. And we understand that people are going to be thinking the same thing.
03:10You know, it's like, why would you go to a country advised not to go to?
03:13But it also begs the bigger question as to why not?
03:16Why can't people go to certain parts of the world?
03:18Why is that not allowed?
03:20You know, and they did everything that they should have done to go there.
03:24They're not the only people that travel to Iran.
03:27You know, I go back to a statistic from the UN.
03:30Four million people went there last year.
03:32That's quite a considerable amount of people going through as tourists.
03:36They're adventure tourists themselves.
03:39They did everything possible.
03:40They had the visa.
03:41They were allowed into the country.
03:43They had a guide.
03:44They stayed on main roads.
03:45They followed every single bit of advice they could.
03:48And whilst they were there, they did nothing but commend the country.
03:50They couldn't believe how beautiful it was, how nice the people were.
03:54You know, it's a shame that this happens because it tarnishes what was a very beautiful story from my mum and Craig.
04:02They loved the place.
04:04They loved the people.
04:05So the advice is there.
04:07You know, it is what it is.
04:12You know, unfortunately, there's no mention of hostitating.
04:14I know there's attention questioning, but that, you know, it's one of those things that you have to weigh the risk.
04:22And I think they thought that, you know, they'd do everything possible to be safe.
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