NOVOSIBIRSK, June 30. /TASS/. A court in Novosibirsk has sentenced Sergey Torop, head of the so-called Church of the Last Testament - also known as the Vissarion Community - to 12 years in prison, the regional prosecutor’s office told TASS.
According to the department, Torop’s co-defendants also received lengthy sentences: Vladimir Vedernikov was sentenced to 12 years in prison, while Vadim Redkin will serve 11 years.
"The court handed down sentences ranging from 11 to 12 years in a strict regime penal colony," the supervisory agency reported.
The court found that from 1991 to 2020, Torop - driven by profit and a desire to exert control - created a religious association called the Community of Single Faith and the organization known as the Church of the Last Testament in the Krasnoyarsk Region and other undisclosed locations. Together with Redkin, and from 2001 onward also with Vedernikov, he led the Kuragino local religious community.
Investigators revealed that at its peak, the organization had over 5,000 followers who called themselves the Community of Vissarion. According to the case materials, the group subjected its members to manipulative, organized psychological violence. As a result of the leaders’ actions between 1991 and 2020, 16 people suffered moral harm, six sustained severe injuries, and one person was moderately wounded.
All three men were convicted of creating and leading a religious association whose activities involved violence and harm to its members’ health. Additionally, Torop and Redkin were charged with inflicting severe and moderate bodily harm, while Vedernikov faced charges of fraud.