‘Siberian Jesus' sentenced to Russian prison after harming followers in bizarre cult
Sergei Torop, a former traffic policeman known to his followers as 'Vissarion,' meaning 'he who gives new life,' and two aides used psychological pressure to extract money from his followers and cause serious harm to their mental and physical health, Reuters reported.
Torop, 64, set up the Church of the Last Testament in a remote part of Siberia's Krasnoyarsk region in 1991, the year the Soviet Union broke up.
He was one of three men convicted Monday in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk.
Torop and Vladimir Vedernikov were sentenced to 12 years, and Vadim Redkin was sentenced to 11 years in a maximum-security prison camp.
4 Vissarion, who has proclaimed himself a new Christ, conducts a service during the 'Holiday of Good Fruit' feast in a village southeast of Russia's Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, August 18, 2010. Picture taken August 18, 2010.
REUTERS
4 A man looks at a portrait of Vissarion, who has proclaimed himself a new Christ, at its church in the village of Petropavlovka, 580 km (360 miles) southeast of Russia's Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, August 16, 2010.
REUTERS
All three men were arrested in 2020 in a helicopter raid that involved the FSB security service, the successor agency to the Soviet KGB.
A bearded self-styled mystic with long hair, Torop claimed to have been 'reborn' to convey the word of God.
He attracted thousands of followers, some of whom flocked to live in a settlement known as the 'Abode of Dawn' or 'Sun City' at a time when Russia was battling poverty and lawlessness, according to Reuters.
4 Children of Vissarion community sing during the morning religious service in Petropavlovka village, some 700 kms southeast of Krasnoyarsk, August 18, 2003.
REUTERS
4 Vissarion, who has proclaimed himself a new Christ, leads a mass prayer in the village of Petropavlovka, about 580 km (360 miles) southeast of the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk August 17, 2007.
REUTERS
He told his followers not to eat meat, smoke, drink alcohol or swear and to stop using money.
Investigators said the men brought 'moral harm' to 16 people, damage to the physical health of six people and moderate damage to another person's health.
Vedernikov had also been accused of committing fraud, the RIA state news agency reported.
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