Russian cult leader who claimed to be reincarnation of Jesus sentenced to 12 years in prison
Sergey Torop. Photo: Facebook A court in the city of Novosibirsk, in western Siberia, has handed down a 12-year prison sentence to a Russian cult leader who claimed to be the reincarnation of Jesus, state-owned news agency RIA Novosti reported on Monday. Sergey Torop, known to his followers as Vissarion, founded the Church of the Last Testament religious community in 1991, which attracted several thousand followers living in remote locations in the south of the Siberian Krasnoyarsk region.