A sect leader pretending to be the reincarnation of Jesus Christ and his closest associates were arrested in Russia on Tuesday.
The commission of inquiry said that Sergei Torop, known to his followers as Visarions, had been detained in Siberia. Two of his closest assistants were also detained in an operation involving special task force fighters.
A video released by the committee of inquiry shows masked Special Task Force fighters boarding 59-year-old Visarion and two other men in a helicopter.
Both the Federal Security Service (FDD) and other law enforcement agencies participated in the operation in the Krasnoyarsk Krai, where the village of “Sun City” founded by Viosarion is located.
Former police officer Torops claims that in 1989 he lost a revelation after losing his job.
He founded the Last Testament Church in 1991, and now several thousand followers of the Visarion live in the taiga in the “City of the Sun” and several other remote villages.
Investigators allege that the self-proclaimed messiah and his associates cheated on followers and subjected them to emotional abuse.
The committee of inquiry is going to indict the sect leaders for setting up an illegal religious organization and for “causing serious harm to two people”.
The members of the sect founded by the Visarion must observe in their daily lives the mixture of Orthodox and environmental prescriptions.
His followers include musicians, doctors, officers of the former USSR army, and even a former Belarusian minister. Visarion has also managed to attract followers from distant lands such as Cuba, Bulgaria, Belgium, Australia and Germany. His followers also include Latvians.
In the 1990s, several members of the sect who had moved to the “City of the Sun” had committed suicide or died due to harsh living conditions and lack of medical care.
–
