helpivanmartin protest

Express solidairity with the Protesters in Prague

Posted by & filed under Community, Videos.

Today, between 13:00 till 14:30 a Protest will be held in Prague, in support of Ivan Buchta and Martin Pezlar.

As many people of the ArmA community cannot physically attend in Prague, you can however show your support by Expressing your Solidarity.
More information : http://www.facebook.com/groups/helpivanmartin/
UPDATE: English Translated video available!

iPrima.cz

 

Ceskatelevize.cz

 

Television interview with Daniel Vavra (CT24)

 

UPDATE: Added pictures and videos from the event. 


Beware! The videos below are not translated (yet).

Television interview with Daniel Vavra (CT24)

 

Student coverage  (SPŠST)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Greek Prime Minister promised he will address the case of detained Czechs.

Posted by & filed under Newspapers.

Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras will be directly dealing with the matter of two detained Czechs on suspicion of espionage. He promised that to the Czech Prime Minister Petr Nečas.

Czech prime minister met his counterpart near the end of the European Union summit in Brussels.

“I asked Mr. Prime Minister Samaras to ensure Greek authorities give this matter their attention to avoid any kind of misunderstanding that could hurt the relations between our two countries. I can say that Mr. Samaras reacted very positively and said that he will pay attention to this matter,” Czech Prime Minister said.

According to a father of one of the detained men Miloslav Buchta, this decision by the Greek Prime Minister has brought new hope for a positive resolution of this matter.

“These are some very positive news for us, we’re extremely happy to hear this. We’d like to thank Mr. Prime Minister Nečas for giving his attention to this matter. We have high hopes that all this will be resolved in favor of the guys and that they will be able to go back home on bail or some other way,” he said.

The Czech game developers were arrested due to photography and video capture of military objects on the island of Lemnos. According to the Greek law they could stay detained in jail for up to 18 months, out of which they have served two. Last week the court denied their request to be released on bail.

 

SOURCE : http://www.rozhlas.cz/zpravy/evropa/_zprava/recky-premier-se-bude-zabyvat-pripadem-zadrzenych-cechu-slibil-to-necasovi-1141202

Greece reacts to Klaus’ letter, invites Czech consul

Posted by & filed under Newspapers, Videos.

On the Czech television primetime news, new information was released regarding the political involvement of the case of Ivan and Martin. The highest levels of Greek diplomacy have gotten involved in the matter of two Czechs detained in Greece due to photographing on the island of Lemnos.  Immediately after the Greek President received a letter from [Czech President] Václav Klaus the head of President’s office has invited the Czech consul to a meeting.

We have translated the full video with english subtitles.

 

 

The highest levels of Greek diplomacy have gotten involved in the matter of two Czechs detained in Greece due to photographing on the island of Lemnos.

Immediately after the Greek President received a letter from [Czech President] Václav Klaus the head of President’s office has invited the Czech consul to a meeting.

Klaus asked Karolos Papoulias to monitor the matter closely.

The 33 years old Ivan Buchta has been in Greek jail for over two months. In less than two months his wife is expected to deliver a baby. When will he return home is still not known.

Ivan and his colleague Martin Pezlar have been visited by their fathers for the second time.

We have been convincing them that everything will be alright but that they have to hold out until after Christmas.

To the Greek jail they mainly brought them warm clothes and money for top-up cards.

I’m glad to hear you. We’re all here with dad, everybody has their fingers crossed.

He says: “we’re trying to survive, we’re read magazines and books”.

The matter has moved to the top levels of Czech-Greek diplomacy.

President Václav Klaus has called the manner an “unfortunate event” in his letter to his Greek counterpart.

The letter was delivered this morning to the office of President Papoulias. In about one to two hours the head of the office has expressed her interest to talk with me personally about the matter.

I am convinced that this move by Václav Klaus will have positive influence on the whole matter.

The two men could imprisoned for up to twenty years for the photography of Greek military objects. They refute the espionage charge.

No matter what consequences President’s letter will have, in the upcoming days the Greek police should end the investigation. The Greek lawyer of both Czechs will be then able to request their release again.

The interest in travel to Greece by the Czech public hasn’t been significantly impacted.

This matter does not have any impact on tourism itself at all.

Annually 300 000 Czechs travel to Greece, mostly as tourists. This makes Greece the second favorite holiday destination.

 

 

SOURCE: http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/

helpivanmartin protest

Statement: Street protest in Prague, on Nov. 26th, 2012

Posted by & filed under Community.

In support of Ivan Buchta and Martin Pezlar: Street protest in Prague, on Nov. 26th, 2012 from  13:00 till 14:30

Czech citizens Ivan Buchta and Martin Pezlar have been detained in Greece since September 9, 2012 on charges of espionage. These charges are, as far as it is possible to tell, completely groundless.

 

It is hard to see our two colleagues, friends and fellow citizens of the Czech Republic being kept in prison, in appalling conditions, based on dubious allegations, and referred to as Turkish agents. The whole situation is all the more absurd considering that the Czech Republic and Greece are both member states of the EU and, inclusive of Turkey, allies within NATO.

 

Ivan and Martin are no spies, they are talented developers of the ArmA games series that spreads the good name of the Czech Republic all around the world. Their games sold millions of copies and won numerous awards. The ArmA III game may be a cause for their current predicament. It takes place on a smaller, geographically modified version of the island Limnos in 2035. Obviously, set so far in the future, no current military installations are part of the game.
Ivan and Martin allegedly knowingly and intentionally took pictures of military objects. They were taken into custody in their hotel and as far as we know the evidence against them consists of a handful of pictures with some military facilities in the background, inadvertently captured on quite commonplace vacation pictures. The pictures and videos of the very same military facilities can be easily found on the Internet, in much better quality.

 

It is not our task to judge the guilt in this affair. However, it is our considered opinion that Greece, being a partner and ally of the Czech Republic in EU and NATO, should treat our citizens with dignity and respect, and without delay. The evidence presented makes us think that the espionage charge is utterly absurd. The strike of the legal professionals in Greece unduly delays any decision.

 

The members of public gathered here on November 26th, 2012 wish to express their unanimous support for Ivan and Martin and call on His Excellency Mr. Georges Paizis, the Ambassador of the Hellenic Republic to the Czech Republic, to approach the representatives of the Greek Government about expediting the solution of this issue.
We are concerned that the whole affair can seriously damage the image of Greece as a free and democratic country not only in the Czech Republic, but also internationally.

 

Ivan and Martin are well known and the affair is closely followed by their fans and media both locally and internationally. The petitions in their support at petition.helpivanmartin.org and www.petice.biz were signed by more than 21 thousand people from all over the world. The Facebook group for their release has 4,000 supporters. Their fate is closely followed by all Czech TV stations and major dailies and also by the biggest international video game news servers.

 

Many of us know Ivan and Martin personally. We are one hundred percent sure that they are not spies or agents. They are consummate professionals and decent, law-obeying human beings. We join the ranks of their supporters.

Ivan, Martin – we stand behind you!

 

Download the statement in PDF format in English or Czech

Or view the document Online in English or Czech

 

 

 

helpivanmartin.org
www.facebook.com/groups/helpivanmartin

Martin Bach, Daniel Vávra, Karel Drda, Petr Poláček,
Lukáš Macura, Jan Modrák, Martin Klíma, Pavel Dobrovský

 

 

 

Interview with Marek Spanel

Posted by & filed under Community.

Jerry Hopper from the Community radiostation LimnosRadio.com published a interview with Marek Spanel:

 

With the current situation of Martin Pezar and Ivan Buchta detained in Greece we decided to get some answers from the Big Boss of Bohemia Interactive. After 3 written statements on the Bohemia Interactive website and quite some time of silence, we send out our reporter Jerry Hopper to get a response from Marek Spanel - Ceo at Bohemia Interactive.

 

 

SOURCE : http://www.limnosradio.com

disclaimer

 

Limnosradio.com is a community website  around the fictional radiostation ‘Limnosradio’ which is based on the greek island ‘Limnos’ in ArmA3, a battlefield simulator from Bohemia Interactive.All characters, events and stories are fictional.  We can not be held responsible for any damage this website might caused by misunderstanding the fact that all of this is fictional.

We do not intent to harm/insult Lemnos or its inhibitants in any way. All information about possible conflicts, persons, nations are fictional and/or based on the storyline of Bohemia Interactive’s game ArmA3. We do not have any form of commercial intend, nor are we afilliated with Bohemia Interactive or its associates.

All of the above do also apply on any references found to ‘SahraniRadio’