Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan remain in custody until February 27 after Romanian court extended their detention: social media star fumed that he was being “arrested for a crime of speech”.
- Andrew Tate was arrested in Bucharest on December 29 along with his brother and two Romanian women on charges of human trafficking and rape
- The judge today granted prosecutors a further 30-day extension of their arrest
- Authorities seized a fleet of 15 luxury cars on the Tate grounds over the weekend
Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan remain in prison until February 27 after a Romanian court extended their detention.
Tate, 36, a British-American national who has 4.5 million followers on Twitter, was arrested in Bucharest on December 29 along with Tristan and two Romanian women on charges of being part of an organized crime group, human trafficking and rape .
Today a judge granted prosecutors a further 30-day extension to their arrest, meaning all four remain in detention until February 27.
Tate, who is accused of recruiting young women and forcing them to create pornographic content online, was furious at the judge’s decision and said of his lawyers that he would be “arrested on a crime of speech”.
Andrew Tate, center, and his brother Tristan leave after appearing before the Court of Appeal in Bucharest, Romania, on January 10
“We continue to claim that the Tate brothers are being arrested at this very moment for an opinion crime, for what they said at some point on the internet and not for what they actually did in their private lives,” Constantin Ioan Gliga, one of the defenders, told the Romanian news agency Gandul.
Gliga added that the decision was “unjustified and totally excessive”.
The judge’s ruling came after all four – Tate, Tristan and Luana Radu and Georgiana Naghel – lost an appeal last week in a Bucharest court that decided to uphold a judge’s December 30 motion to overturn an earlier decision Confirm extension of their detention from 24 hours to 30 days.
Tate is accused of recruiting numerous women and keeping them under house arrest “like prisoners” while they were forced to create pornographic online content on webcams.
Romanian prosecutors claim Tate recruited the women on social media platforms and lured them to Bucharest by falsely professing his love and intention to marry them.
Tate (pictured on a private jet) is accused of recruiting and holding dozens of women under house arrest “like prisoners” while they were forced to create pornographic content on the internet
Meanwhile, Romanian authorities came to a Tate property near Bucharest on Saturday to tow away a fleet of 15 luxury cars and remove 14 designer watches and cash worth an estimated 3.6 million euros (3.1 million pounds).
Romania’s anti-organized crime agency said it had identified six victims in the human trafficking case who had been subjected to “acts of physical violence and psychological coercion” and sexually exploited by members of the alleged criminal group.
The agency said the victims were lured by feigned love and were later intimidated, monitored and subjected to other control tactics while being coerced into appearing in pornography.
Tate, a former professional kickboxer who has reportedly been based in Romania since 2017, was previously banned from various prominent social media platforms for expressing misogynist views and hate speech.
After the assets were removed from Tate’s compound on Saturday, a post appeared on his Twitter account that read, “Anyone who thinks I’m a human trafficker really is an idiot” and “anybody smart enough to do that understanding the American system is unfair would be overwhelmed by the injustice of the Romanian system.’
This is breaking news, more to come…