NOVOSIBIRSK, January 28 - RAPSI. The Novosibirsk District Court will announce the sentence of the suspected leader of the Ashram Shambala esoteric sect on February 4, the prosecutor told RIA Novosti on Monday.

Konstantin Rudnev, who was arrested in September 2010, said in court on Monday that he did not found the sect. The hearings have been held behind closed doors since July 2011. Prosecutor Vera Vasilkova said the final arguments were heard on Monday before the suspect read his closing speech.

"He has pleaded innocent," she said. Vasilkova quoted Rudnev as saying that he taught yoga classes from 1992 to 1997, but then stopped working as a teacher. "He said he just spoke with people, but did not preach anything," she said.

Meanwhile, Rudnev's lawyers have asked the court to acquit him. The 44-year-old suspect was initially charged with founding a religious society that infringed upon the rights of its followers. However, the prosecutors later asked for the charge to be dropped, as the two-year statute of limitations had passed.

According to the prosecutors, Rudnev declared himself a messiah, or the "stranger from Sirius," who was sent to Earth to save devotees. He recruited new members at local yoga seminars. He has been accused of promoting drug use, forcing participation in orgies, and psychological abuse, such as sleep deprivation and starvation.
Many of the members donated all their material possessions to the cult.

Rudnev was detained in his summer house outside Novosibirsk in September 2010. Investigations opened against Rudnev in 1999, 2004 and 2008, but were later closed before reaching court, as the cult members refused to testify against him.

Authorities have said the cult was established in 1989 in Novosibirsk and has branches in 18 regions across Russia, including Moscow and St. Petersburg. According to the regional prosecutor's office, Rudnev's teachings are based on his book, "The Way of the Fool."

The book ridicules the family and the desire to have children, an education, and to work, but praises blind subordination to the will of the guru, who apparently leads his followers to a better future through abandoning anything that isn't essential.

The sect reportedly has 30,000 members. However, only 16 individuals have come forward as aggrieved parties in the present case against Rudnev.