Czech game developers suspected of spying held in Greece

A court in Greece has placed in pre-trial detention two Czech game developers arrested earlier this week on suspicion of espionage after being caught filming military installations, a police source said on Friday.“The prosecutor on Thursday placed the suspects in pre-trial detention,” the police source said. “No trial date has been set for now.”“For a criminal charge such as this, the trial could be set in nine to 18 months,” the officer added.The two men, aged 28 and 33, were arrested on Sunday near an army camp on the Aegean island of Lemnos and were found in possession of a video camera and a photo camera containing footage of various military installations, the authorities said.The detainees say the footage was to be used in “Arma 3”, a combat game by Czech developers Bohemia Interactive that is to be released later this year.In an online statement, Bohemia Interactive said its two employees “visited the island with the sole purpose of experiencing the island’s beautiful surroundings.”The company said its games were only based on “publicly available” information and that its staff were not instructed to violate laws.A decade ago, Greece had detained for over a month 14 British and Dutch plane spotters suspected of spying, before releasing them on bail.AFP