Category: Pyotr Kuznetsov

A court in Central Russia has turned down a request to end the compulsory psychiatric treatment of the man, whose doomsday sect that spent more than six months underground waiting for the apocalypse in 2007-2008.

In November 2007, 35 members of a religious sect, led by Pyotr Kuznetsov, went underground to wait for the end of the world, which they initially claimed would come in May 2008.

A court in central Russia ordered on Friday the leader of a doomsday sect that recently spent more than six months underground waiting for the apocalypse to undergo compulsory psychiatric treatment.

“The defendant will not be responsible for the crimes he committed when mentally ill. The court has ordered compulsory treatment for him in a psychiatric ward,” Judge Maria Smyslova said.

A local court in Russia’s Penza region is set to hear the case of the Doomsday cult leader, Pyotr Kuznetsov. He is accused of inciting religious hatred after he inspired 35 of his followers, including four children, to lock themselves in an underground bunker to wait for the Apocalypse last November.

No confinement is in store for Kuznetsov in the habitual sense of the word because he was declared insane, Shatsky said.

The long-running saga made local officials aware of some of the problems facing residents and local authorities even repaired roads to allow easier access to the cave, locals said.

The nine were the last of a group of 35 men, women and children that had dug into a hillside near the Volga region town of Penza in November and threatened to blow themselves up with gas canisters if authorities tried to remove them.

Religious writings by doomsday cult leader Pyotr Kuzntsov have been declared illegal by a court in Russia’s Penza Region. The books were found to carry extremist ideas aimed at inciting hatred towards other religions and nationalities.