4 Bulgarians accused of espionage in Greece

Greece is jam-packed with picture-worthy sights, and there’s no shortage of tourists milling about to snap away at the nation’s treasures, but it turns out the Greeks may give you a hard time if you point your Kodak in the wrong direction – as four Bulgarian visitors recently found out. Or at least they say they were only tourists…

The Greek authorities accused the four visiting Bulgarians of espionage when they were caught taking photos of a military cantonment by Orestiada. Delcho Zjekov, Veselina Peteva, Darinka Dimova and Tnaya Vassileva were all arrested on May 24 by Greek intelligence officers at the border, when they were on their way out of Greece.

The foursome are lucky to have received suspended sentences (18 months each for two of the men and 14 months each for the other two) at the conclusion of the trial that followed their arrest. They were convicted under Article 149 of the Greek Criminal Procedure Code for the illegal photography of army sights. They are now back in Bulgaria.

The Bulgarian ambassador to Thessaloniki – Kremen Stoev – says that the trial was a tough one and that the Bulgarians barely got off. He’s advised Bulgarian tourists to Greece to be extremely cautious around military sights. Might just be best to stick to taking photos of crumbling ruins for now.

This is not the first time Bulgarians have raised suspicion with their photography. In August of last year, three visiting Bulgarians were arrested for the same spying offense and sentenced to 15 months each (also suspended sentences). Two of the three convicted last summer were Bulgarian Army employees, but according to the Bulgarian Defense Ministry they were hitting up Greece strictly for vacation purposes. They said they took the photographs for submission to a Bulgarian military mag. Could be true, but it could also be a flimsy cover…

image courtesy of commons.wikipedia.org