READ HERE: A Russian court has sentenced Sergey Torop, a former traffic policeman who claimed to be the reincarnation of Jesus Christ, to 12 years in a maximum-security prison. Torop was convicted of causing psychological and physical harm to his followers and financially exploiting them.

Torop, who goes by the name Vissarion, founded the Church of the Last Testament in 1991 in Russia’s Krasnoyarsk region. The sect attracted thousands of followers with its strict lifestyle that bans meat, alcohol, smoking, swearing, and the use of money. Its members live as vegetarian subsistence farmers in remote Siberian settlements.

The Novosibirsk court also sentenced Torop’s aides, Vladimir Vedernikov and Vadim Redkin, to 12 and 11 years, respectively. All three denied any wrongdoing during the trial, and were ordered to pay 40 million rubles (around $511,500) in moral damages.