The Moscow Times
June 30, 2025
A court in Novosibirsk on Monday sentenced a Siberian cult leader who claimed to be the reincarnation of Jesus Christ to 12 years in prison for harming the mental and physical health of his followers.
Sergei Torop, a former traffic officer who calls himself “Vissarion,” founded the Church of the Last Testament in 1991 after what he described as a divine revelation. He attracted thousands of followers to remote settlements in Siberia, including a core group of about 300 living in isolation atop a hill they called the Abode of Dawn.
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