More than two months after a couple of developers from Czech studio Bohemia Interactive (ArmA) were arrested over espionage suspicions, the pair has had an appeal against the charges denied.
Bohemia's Ivan Buchta and Martin Pezlar were originally taken in after allegedly capturing video and photos of a military installation in Greece for an upcoming ArmA game.
According to local news sites, and as translated by Eurogamer, Buchta and Pezlar have now been denied bail and will be tried before a court in Greece. They could face up to 20 years in prison.
In the meantime, the families of the pair have spoken out, stating that the conditions they are being subjected to have been abysmal.
They're in a cell with over 25 people, they sleep on the ground," Buchta's father Miloslav stated. "They have food twice a day.
His mother added, "Our boys no longer tell us on the phone that it's alright, that they're handling it. After the court's decision we only hear from them something that no parent ever wants to hear: Mom, dad, please save us."
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I hope these guys get home soon.
And the initial reports - which claimed they were researching a video game - were false. They were saying they were on a holiday from beginning. Arma III is almost finished so why would they doing a research now? Also Arma III will not contain any real life military base, only the real island, which will be modified to fit the game.
Isn't this too harsh (to the point of maybe cruel) to hold then for 20 years in prison?
I am missing something?
Ignorance of the law is no excuse but espionage is a motive not just a crime, and likely not their intention.
But I feel like there's another side to all this that isn't being mentioned, because Bohemia Interactive also develops high end simulation software for military use. (4 years ago, I was under the impression they made Virtual Battlespace 2 first, using Military contracts, and just released ArmA later as a spin off to leverage their engine in the game industry. So saying they were there to research ArmA confuses me. But I've also been pretty disconnected from that hardcore sim industry for several years now).