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“I Didn’t Treat Mikhail Borisovich according to the Criminal World Law”
Recidivist Igor Gnezdilov, who shared a jail with Mikhail Khodorkovsky for a year, told Kommersant correspondent Sergey Dyupin how he deprived YUKOS ex-joint owner of a hope for conditional release.
“How did you introduce yourselves?”
“I called myself Igor, and he – Mikhail Borisovich.”
“You happened to witness a case when Mikhail Khodorkovsky was rebuked for refusing to hold his hands behind his back when walking.”
“When you come out of your jail, you hear a command “Hands behind back!” and only after executing it you can move on.” On October 15, 2007 we were “taken for a walk” as usual. We walked in a usual order along the corridor: security guard, Mikhail Borisovich, me and another security guard. I can hardly remember who held hands behind the back and who didn’t. Anyway, I remember that there were no commands when we walked, and there was no incident consequently. Some time later I was demanded to write an explanatory note, where I was to mention that in the morning Khodorkovsky walked along the corridor without holding his hands behind his back and thus ignored the requests of the administration officials and violated the law.”
“Ten days later a half of convict Khodorkovsky’s term expired and he could have gotten the right to appeal for conditional release. Disciplinary punishment doesn’t allow him to be released before the appointed time. Did you know about it?”
“Everyone knows about it. But I was told I could abandon any hope for conditional release unless I wrote what I was told to.”
While Igor Gnezdilov was in prison, his wife Svetlana, who was convicted of a murder, bore a child. On March 11 their son Danila, 3 could have been to be taken to an orphanage. To avert it, Igor was to seek conditional release. So, he put his signature on the paper.
“I felt I was a traitor. In the evening, as I saw Mikhail Borisovich, I told him about my meeting with the administration and the reasons for signing the document. He replied that he understood everything and didn’t feel angry with me. I can’t tell for sure what he thought, but the incident didn’t affect our relations.”
“How is your doing assessed according to the criminal world law you have followed for 19 years?”
“It has no “regulations” regarding it. I didn’t treat Mikhail Borisovich according to this law.”
Sergey Dyupin
All the Article in Russian as of July 01, 2008
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