A Siberian cult leader claiming to be the reincarnation of Jesus Christ was sentenced to 12 years in a Russian prison camp, being found guilty of harming his followers both physically and financially.

Sergei Torop, a former traffic officer known as “Vissarion,” meaning “he who gives new life,” and his two assistants exerted psychological pressure to extort money and inflict severe mental and physical damage on his followers, as reported by Reuters.

Torop, 64, set up the Church of the Last Testament in a remote part of Siberia’s Krasnoyarsk region in 1991, the year the Soviet Union broke up.

A bearded self-styled mystic with long hair, Torop claimed to have been “reborn” to convey the word of God. He attracted thousands of followers, some of whom flocked to live in a settlement known as the “Abode of Dawn” or “Sun City” at a time when Russia was battling poverty and lawlessness, according to Reuters. 

He told his followers not to eat meat, smoke, drink alcohol or swear and to stop using money.

Investigators said the men brought “moral harm” to 16 people, damage to the physical health of six people and moderate damage to another person’s health.

Members of the religious sect of Vissarion, who has proclaimed himself a new Christ, take part in the Holiday of Good Fruit feast in Siberia.   (Reuters/Ilya Naymushin )

Vedernikov had also been accused of committing fraud, the RIA state news agency reported.