Sergei Torop Sentenced to 12 Years in Prison on Charges of Claiming to be the Reincarnation of Jesus Christ

Sergei Torop, leader of a religious cult, was sentenced to 12 years in prison in a maximum-security labor camp on charges of claiming to be the reincarnation of Jesus Christ.

Sergei Torop, known as “Vissarion,” leader of a deviant religious sect in Russia who claimed to be the reincarnation of Jesus Christ, was arrested along with two accomplices and sentenced to imprisonment in a maximum-security labor camp in Siberia for causing psychological, physical, and financial harm to his followers.

The Novosibirsk court in Siberia sentenced the 64-year-old Torop and Vladimir Vedenekov to 12 years in prison, and Vadim Redkin to 11 years in a maximum-security labor camp. The three defendants were also ordered to pay 40 million rubles, equivalent to 511,500 dollars, in compensation to their victims.

Sergei Torop is a former traffic police officer who founded the “Church of the Last Testament” in an area of Krasnoyarsk, Siberia in 1991 following the collapse of the Soviet Union. By changing his appearance with long hair and a long beard, he attracted thousands of followers, some of whom migrated to the settlement called “House of Dawn.”

He, who claimed to be the reincarnation of Jesus Christ, along with his accomplices caused moral harm to 16 people and subjected them to psychological pressure. Furthermore, they caused serious harm to the health of six others. Sergei and his two accomplices were arrested by FSB security forces in 2020, but they denied the charges against them.

Now the three defendants have been found guilty in a case of psychological and financial exploitation of followers of the aforementioned cult and have been transferred to a maximum-security forced labor camp following their arrest.