ARMA community rallies to help jailed Bohemia developers

The ARMA community has rallied to support the two Bohemia Interactive developers who are currently jailed in Greece on charges of espionage, launching a site and an online petition this week.

The site pleads with other members of the community to show their support for Ivan Buchta and Martin Pezlar by leaving messages and signing an online petition protesting the arrest.

The site also contains up-to-date information about Buchta and Pezlar's arrest.

"Facing up to 20 years in prison for taking pictures of an island, just like countless other tourists before them, the Czech developers are being charged with espionage," the site's front page says. "Only because they happen to work on a computer game, a game that portrays Greece as a battlefield for a fictional futuristic conflict between the USA and Iran in the year 2035."

A Twitter and Facebook page for the cause have also been launched, while the online petition has 5,541 signatures at the time of writing.

Buchta and Pezlar were arrested on the Greek island of Lemnos two weeks ago for spying on a military compound. According to Greek reports , the pair were in possession of videos and photos of military compounds in Lemnos at the time of their arrest. The Greek island is the main location for Bohemia Interactive's upcoming shooter ARMA III, with the two reportedly claiming that they were collecting reference material for the game.

Since their arrest, Bohemia Interactive has insisted that Buchta and Pezlar were on holiday, and did not enter any military areas or shoot any footage of military objects for use in ARMA III.