Russian faith healer gets eight years

[Questioninggeller]

It looks like a Moscow court cut Grigory Grabovoi's sentence down to eight years. A little background on this:

Grabovoi was convicted on 11 counts of fraud after taking money in exchange for promises to resurrect from the dead, the children who died in the Beslan tragedy of September 2004.

Source

However, a few weeks ago:

...
Grabovoi will now have to serve 8 years in prison, and have to pay a fine of 750,000 rubles ($28,750) to the state instead of 1,000,000 rubles ($38,350).

Grabovoi's lawyers said they considered that their client's sentence should have been cut by more than three years and that they would appeal the verdict.

In July Grabovoi, 44, was found guilty of 11 counts of fraudulently obtaining money "under the guise of resurrecting the victims' dead relatives or curing them of serious illnesses." He had denied all the charges, saying he had pursued political, public, religious and scientific activities in order to "bring benefit to people."

In 2005, Grabovoi made headlines all over the world when he promised to resurrect the children killed as Russian forces stormed a school that had been seized by Chechen militants in the North Caucasus town of Beslan. A total of 331 people, including 186 children, died in what has been referred to as Russia's 9/11.
...

Source

Interesting that convictions like this happen in Russia, but meanwhile in the U.S. the public/government can't even look into the finances of Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland, etc. Both Hinn and Copeland have claimed to "raise the dead" and "heal" people with HIV, cancer, and so on.

Sen. Chuck Grassley on the BBC:

 

[Toke]

Come on you can´t have a church leader living like a pauper.
They must live in a style that demonstrates the truth of the prosperity gospel.

And since they can´t have a job on the side the lifestyle must be paid by the donations.

See, no problem

 

[Scazon]

The conviction of someone in Russia only means he isn't acceptable to the current rulers of the state, or its religious arm, the Russian Orthodox Church. They don't have a credible justice system.

 

[VisionFromFeeling]

I haven't read into the case, but things like this where people claim to have some psychic powers and promise help that they can not deliver to vulnerable victims and take away their money and power in their own lives are a reason why I am proud to be part of the scientific and skeptical community such as here.

Although I am a claimant of having a possible paranormal ability myself I do not and will not use it in ways that are illegal (such as dispensing serious medical information or giving advice that only a legitimate physician is allowed to give), take away people's power in themselves and their own lives or to use it to take money from people who are already in a difficult situation. I am open-minded and look forward to having a test of scientific standard to tell whether I have the ability or not before I allow myself to state that I actually have an ability. (You can read more on my webpage www.visionfromfeeling.com or on my JREF thread http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=128149)