The Greek Government is prosecuting two developers at the Czech-based company Bohemia Interactive who were arrested on charges of "espionage" for simply conducting research on an upcoming military-style video game. They were arrested for photographing the landscape of a Greek military base on the island of Lemnos and could potentially face 20 years in prison.

Bohemia executive producer Jan Kunt stated, "There have been developers on Lemnos before taking detailed photographs of things like dirt, fields and fauna. They take photos of lots of flowers and shrubbery and trees to get the environment accurate." The Mayor of Lemnos has previously been vocal against Bohemia Interactive for using publicly available maps of the island in their development. These public maps were essentially the equivalent of Google Maps, and nowhere near military grade or secret in any way.

In addition, 12 Britons and two Dutch plane-spotters were arrested in 2001 for espionage on the same island for taking photographs of airplanes. All but one of their convictions were overturned with apologies.

The Greek Government is using this innocuous incident to divert attention away from its tumultuous economic situation, and in the process potentially ruining the lives of two young software developers simply doing their jobs. No Greek military servicemen would ever be at risk from the type of photographs these innocent men were taking, and there was no intent to spy on the Greek military installation.

The Greek Government needs to immediately drop the charges of espionage on these two innocent Czech software developers.