For the imprisoned game developers from Bohemia Interactive, it looks like there is still no end in sight to their misadventures in Greece which landed them inside of prison for possible espionage charges. It has been a while since we’ve heard any updates on the two game developers or their case, but today more details emerged and things are still looking uncertain for the pair. They both will face a trial and have to contend with the charges of espionage and possibly 20 years in prison if found guilty. Their trial has been delayed numerous times, and apparently there is no date set in stone for when they will be tried or when this ordeal will be over.
There has been a website set up to help support the detained duo, called www.helpivanmartin.org. On the website, users can send their well-wishes to the developers through messages.
When asked about this whole thing, Jay Crowe of Bohemia Interactive had pointed criticisms towards how the debacle has been handled;
“Only hours after their arrest some bizarre media campaign seemed to kick into gear – talking about Czech spies arrested in the act of photographing military complexes to be used in ArmA 3 – all despite the fact that they weren’t actually formally charged with anything until much later on. I can’t imagine that helped the public perception of the situation.”
I’m not sure that I believe in some crazy conspiracy against the game developers as much as there being some form of precedent of an official stating that the two developers were caught spying, and talk of espionage simply blossomed from there. The same can be said with the talk of them photographing military complexes to be used in ArmA III, since the ArmA games are touted for their realism and it is a very easy few dots to connect when you hear “espionage” and “photographing military complexes” that it would involve something for the game.
[Source: CVG]
