BUCHAREST: A Romanian court ordered late Tuesday that divisive internet personality Andrew Tate, his brother and two other suspects be held in Romanian police custody for 30 days pending a criminal investigation into alleged human trafficking. To be done.
Tate, his brother Tristan and two Romanian female suspects were detained on December 29 by Romanian anti-organized crime prosecutors on charges of forming a criminal group to sexually exploit six women.
He has denied wrongdoing through his lawyers and challenged the 30-day arrest warrant. On Tuesday, Bucharest’s appeals court said it rejected the challenge as “groundless”.
“The prosecution’s arguments were that they have evidence. Naturally, our arguments were that there is no evidence,” Ioan Gliga, one of the defense lawyers, told reporters.
The first court to issue an arrest warrant cited the risk that suspects could escape justice by leaving Romania to countries with which Bucharest has no extradition treaties.
Prosecutors have said the Tate brothers recruited their victims by seducing them and falsely claiming they wanted a relationship.
The victims were then taken to properties on the outskirts of the capital Bucharest and, according to prosecutors, sexually abused through physical violence and mental intimidation, forcing them to produce obscene content for social media sites.
They also said a brother had raped one of the victim girls in March last year, when the investigation began.
Prosecutors seized 15 luxury vehicles and more than 10 properties and houses belonging to the suspects in Bucharest and Prava and Brasov counties, Ramona Bola, a spokeswoman for Romania’s DIICOT anti-organized crime unit, told Reuters. The purpose of the seizure was to prevent the sale or concealment of assets.
If prosecutors need more time to investigate, they can get approval for a further extension of detention up to 180 days under Romanian law.
Tate gained mainstream notoriety for misrepresentations and hate speech that led to her being banned from all major social media platforms, although she was reinstated in November after Elon Musk acquired the social media giant. Twitter account was restored.
The former professional kickboxer, who holds US and British citizenship, has said that women are partly to blame for the rapes and that they are related to men.
On a podcast last year, he said he started making money by convincing multiple girlfriends to video chat and split the profits back when he lived in London.
“How can I use these women to earn my money?” Tate said, his business started with two girlfriends and has 75 women working for him and earning $600,000 a month.
He has also said that he moved to Romania after being investigated for sexual abuse allegations in Britain, which were eventually dismissed, because he preferred to live in countries where corruption was accessible to everyone.
