Bohemia Interactive Developers Arrested for "Espionage"

Updated: 5:04pm PST

Developers beware, when you're conducting a reference trip to film military hardware for an upcoming video gameyou might want to let people know beforehand. (Bohemia Interactive is now claiming that the two individuals were not on a official reference trip for Bohemia Interactive during the time of arrest.)

It's being reported by multiple sources that two Bohemia Interactive employees have been arrested in Greece and charged with Espionage after they were seen filming various military aircraft and installations, and were found with additional camera footage and photos of the same. The developers state that they were collecting reference material for Bohemia Interactives upcoming ArmA III, which is also set on a Greek island, but in this era of tightened military security -especially in Greece which has seen large scale riots due to their economical difficulties and austerity measures- that excuse probably offered little comfort to the government officials who picked them up.

Marek Spanel, head of Bohemia Interactive has confirmed that the story is true but would not comment further "at least until we know more specific details about the case..."

The names of the two Bohemia Interactive employees have also not been released. But company CEO Marek Spanel has issued a statement to Eurogamer stating that the two employees were on Holiday to the Greek island of Lemnos, not on a research trip for Bohemia Interactive:

"We can confirm that two Bohemia Interactive employees, our colleagues and friends, were arrested during their holiday trip to Lemnos. They visited the island with the sole purpose of experiencing the island's beautiful surroundings.

"Since its establishment in 1999, Bohemia Interactive has created games based only upon publicly available information. We always respect the law and we've never instructed anybody to violate the laws of any country. The same is true for Arma 3.

"Currently, all our effort goes towards supporting the guys over there, as well as their friends and families affected by this difficult situation. We sincerely hope that this is an unfortunate misunderstanding of their passion as artists and creators of virtual worlds."
 

[source: Kotaku, Edge]