RUSSIAN AUTHORITIES ARREST MAN WHO CLAIMS TO BE REINCARNATION OF JESUS CHRIST
A cult leader and former traffic Police officer, Sergei Torop, who has been claiming to be 'Jesus Christ reincarnation', has been arrested by Russia authorities.
The operation that led to the arrest of Torop, on September 22, was conducted by the Russian National Guard, FSB security service and the investigative Committee.
In a statement released by the investigative Committee, Torop's cult group used money donated by its members for various activities and also used psychological violence to 'generate income from religious activities'.
"As a result of prolonged exposure, some of the followers of the religious organization suffered serious harm to their health," the statement read.
Read Also: GOVERNOR ABDULRASAQ URGES FG TO ASSIST OVER 15,000 RESIDENTS DISPLACED BY FLOOD
Torop, who is known to his followers as 'Vissarion Christ the Teacher', has been running a religious sect for over 30 years known as the Church of The Last Testament in Siberia's Krasnoyarsk region.
The 59-year-old former Red Army conscript claimed he was reborn in 1990 as the reincarnation of Jesus Christ.
The law caught up with him when he and his close aide Vadim Redkin, a former rock musician, were detained by authorities, who stormed their commune in Sun City with helicopter, vans and heavily armed troops.
Sources say an eyewitness account revealed that Torop and Redkin were put into helicopters and taken away.
Torop become popular as Vissarion after the fall of the Soviet Union, a congregation of Soviet Socialist Republics and federal socialist State in Northern Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991, according to reports.
He claimed that he had an awakening after he was fired from his job in 1989 as a night shift traffic cop in Minusinsk.
Before his arrest, he has written a 10 volume book, 'sequel to the Bible'.
Read Also: UPDATE: NLC VOWS TO BEGIN NATIONWIDE STRIKE FROM SEPTEMBER 28
His followers celebrate Christmas on January 14, which his Torop's date of birth.
He has about 4,000 followers called 'Vissarionites' living in the settlement and 6,000 around the world.
Torop preaches reincarnation, apocalypse and veganism.
They are not allowed to use animal products, particularly in diet and associated philpsophy that rejects commodity status of animals.
Comments