In light of the AFP story today, we are re-posting Grigory Pasko’s interview of Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s former cellmate, Denis Yurinsky, from April 27, 2007.  Good to see the mainstream media finally getting around to talking with this guy.

I’m 25 years old. They locked me up at age 16 for murder. I was born in Krasnokamensk. I did more than eight years. That was my first time in jail, and I hope it will be my last. At first I did time in a colony not far from Chita, and then at No. 10, in Krasnokamensk.

Of course it was hard to learn what the world behind the barbed wire is like at such a young age. Eventually I got used to it. A colony is a small world with its own laws. Laws that are established by the prisoners themselves, and the laws of the colony administration. They rarely coincide in anything. By the way, the laws of the administration are far from always the same as the laws that have been adopted by the state.

Which laws are more just? That’s hard to say. For example, thou shalt not kill and thou shalt not steal – that’s from the Bible. And in the criminal world, stealing from a convict is also punishable. Someone who steals from a comrade is a rat. True, the punishment for ratting is different, a lot more severe.

And another thing. Zeks don’t punish innocent people, in contrast with the state.