Requested for significant imprisonment terms for Vissayrioun and his accomplices in jail
In the Railway District Court of Novosibirsk, the prosecutor has requested prison sentences of up to 14.5 years for three leaders of a controversial religious community operating in the Krasnoyarsk region. This lengthy investigation, ongoing since 2020, is nearing its end.
According to TASS, the prosecutor supports the claims of the plaintiffs seeking compensation for moral damages ranging from 5 to 20 million rubles. Additionally, he requested the court to satisfy the suit filed by the prosecutor's office on behalf of the Russian Federation, totaling over 5 million rubles. The prosecutor proposed maintaining the arrested assets of the accused until the full execution of the court's civil judgments.
Established in the 1990s by a resident of Krasnoyarsk, Sergey Torop, who declared himself the latest messiah and assumed the name Vis рабов, this religious movement has been the subject of controversy. In September 2020, Torop, his press secretary Vadim Redkin, and school leader Vladimir Vedernikov were arrested by authorities. The court subsequently liquidated the "Church of…," removing it from the registry of legal entities.
All three leaders of the organization faced charges.
According to DELA, Torop and Redkin are charged under Article 329, which pertains to the creation and administration of a religious organization involving violence and harm to citizens and other causes of damage to their health, as well as causing grave and medium-grave harm to their health.
Vedernikov is accused under Articles pertaining to the leadership of a religious organization involving violence and harm to citizens and other causes of damage to their health, causing grave and medium-grave harm to their health, and fraud in a large scale.
As claimed by the prosecution, followers of the movement were forbidden to express their opinions, desires, or needs and were intimidated and threatened with expulsion. These actions, according to the department, have caused severe psychological harm to the individuals involved.
Following the investigation, the authorities discovered that the accused had formed a religious organization in the Krasnoyarsk region, with over 5,000 followers from 1991 to 2020. The investigation found that manipulative psychological methods were used on members of the community, leading to serious consequences. 16 individuals suffered moral harm, while six were subjected to severe physical harm, and one was subjected to medium-grave physical harm.
Russia has been harshly criticized for its crackdowns on various groups, including religious figures, under accusations often related to discrediting state institutions or security-related offenses. The case of these Siberian religious leaders, as with many others, raises concerns about political and judicial manipulation, with independent sources describing such actions as fabricated or politically motivated. These genuine fears about religious freedom in the region are supported by the fact that even a Jewish leader was sentenced on fabricated charges to three years in a Siberian prison but remained steadfast, as reported by the Jerusalem Post[1]. The exact charges and official charges lists for the religious leaders in this case were not specified in the provided results.
[1] https://www.jpost.com/opinion/siberia-and-moscow-sent-my-friend-to-prison-on-false-charges-662401
- The ongoing trial for the three leaders of the controversial religious community in the Krasnoyarsk region, which includes charges related to politics ('politics') and crime-and-justice ('crime-and-justice'), has garnered significant attention in the general news ('general-news').
- Following the lengthy investigation, the prosecutor in the case has demanded compensation for moral damages ranging from 5 to 20 million rubles, highlighting the severe psychological harm ('crime-and-justice') suffered by the victims ('news').
