US EditionSect Leader's 12-Year Sentence: The Fall of 'Vissarion's' Empire
SIBERIA, RUSSIA, JUN 30 – Sergei Torop and two associates were ordered to pay over $1 million in damages after being convicted of exploiting followers through psychological manipulation and labor over nearly 30 years.
- A Siberian court sentenced sect leader Sergei Torop and two aides to 12 and 11 years in prison on Monday for harming followers' mental and physical health.
- In 1991, Torop established a spiritual movement known as the Church of the Last Testament, emerging during Russia's post-Soviet period of ideological uncertainty and developing a following in the Krasnoyarsk region.
- Authorities accused Torop and his associates of using psychological violence to exploit followers for money and labor, causing moral harm to 16 people and serious health problems to six between 1991 and 2020.
- The court awarded compensation totaling 45 million rubles to both the victims and prosecutors, highlighting the sect’s remote location atop a hill called the Abode of Dawn and its strict prohibitions on consuming meat, tobacco, alcohol, swearing, and handling money.
- Torop’s arrest in a 2020 FSB helicopter raid and subsequent sentencing likely ended his more than three-decade sect, though it remains unclear if they will appeal.
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Sergei Torop, self-proclaimed "Jesus of Siberia", was found guilty on 30 June of exploiting his followers and receiving 12 years of detention in prison camps in Russia Self-proclaimed "
A former traffic policeman claimed to be born again to preach the word of God. Now, “Siberian Jesus” is sentenced to twelve years in prison.
'Jesus of Siberia' jailed for abusing followers at isolated mountain-top cult - Daily Star
After losing his job as a traffic officer in 1990, Sergei Torop, 64, claimed to have been reborn as Vissarion and went on to form a cult that replaces Christmas with a feast on his birthday
Sect Leader's 12-Year Sentence: The Fall of 'Vissarion's' Empire
Sergei Torop, a Russian sect leader claiming to be Jesus reincarnated, received a 12-year prison sentence for harming followers' health and finances. Known as 'Vissarion,' he founded a religious sect in Siberia post-Soviet Union, promising spiritual guidance while extracting money and imposing strict lifestyle rules.
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