You probably remember when we told you about those two Bohemia employees that have been arrested in Greece on the grounds of espionage. Well, the case still isn’t closed and sadly a lot of confusion still reigns over the whole situation. Although it was previously thought that both employees were taking pictures of military installations for Bohemia’s upcoming title, this has apparently been untrue. The Czech developers repeatedly stated that, with the game nearing completion and being set in 2035, they didn’t need any photographs of the actual place and that both employers were visiting Greece as tourists and nothing else.

Having spoken with lawyers, the following statement has been released:

“They took photographs and videos in public areas, as countless tourists arriving to enjoy the beauty and hospitality of Greece may well do. These included a short video as they drove through the main road passing around the international airport, where in one short part of the video off in the distance some hangars and other buildings of the complex can be seen. It’s very likely that many tourists may have pictures similar to those taken by Ivan and Martin in their own family albums, without being aware that they put themselves or their families at risk.”

As a hoppy photographer, I can only agree. Things wander in and out of your camera lens all the time and I still laugh, in retrospect, about that one time when a friend visiting the Middle East got detained for a few hours because he took a street picture not noticing the people in the background.

However, we still don’t know how obvious both employees were in taking their pictures. Maybe, because they developed the game, they had one of these: ‘Hey, wouldn’t it be cool if we bring some pictures of us standing in Limnos to the studio’ moments. Or maybe they really took pictures by accident. Regardless of what actually went on, the reaction of the Greek authorities is nothing that should surprise us. Yes, they might overreact a bit as they did in the past at an airshow with a bunch of plane spotters – yes, you heard that right, they arrested plane photographer at an airshow – but really, the same situation could have happened anywhere.