Law enforcement authorities in the northwestern Leningrad region disrupted a live burial ritual held in the woods, forcing organizers to exhume participants who had been buried alive, state media reported Thursday.
“Officers found two people wrapped in rags and buried in graves during an inspection,” a source told the state-run TASS news agency. “Law enforcement officials demanded the organizers dig up those buried alive and check to make sure they were in good health.”
A video published by TASS showed police officers arriving at a campsite and ordering a person in blue robes to unearth at least two people, who appeared to be fully wrapped in cloth and lying in a shallow pit.
According to the news agency, 15 people took part in the ritual, during which a person is symbolically buried alive as part of a spiritual or psychological transformation practice. Participants are usually covered with soil while lying in a shallow grave to simulate burial.
The organizers of the live burial, a man and a woman, were later arrested, TASS reported, adding that the pair could face charges of running an organization that infringes on the rights of citizens. That charge carries a maximum sentence of seven years in prison.
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