A judge in Romania has granted a request to extend the arrest of Andrew Tate, the social media personality who was detained in the country on charges of being part of an organized crime group, human trafficking and rape, for another 30 days, a judge said. official on Friday.
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Tate, 36, a British-American citizen who has 4.7 million Twitter followers, was initially detained on December 29 in Bucharest, the Romanian capital. His brother, Tristan, and two Romanian women were arrested and detained in the same case.
In this still taken from video posted by Observator Antena 1, social media personality Andrew Tate is taken away by police in the Ilfov area, north of Bucharest, Romania, on Thursday, December 29, 2022.
(Antenna 1 Observer via AP)
Ramona Bolla, a spokeswoman for Romania’s anti-organized crime agency DIICOT, told The Associated Press that prosecutors on Thursday requested a second 30-day extension to hold the four in custody while the investigation continues. A judge approved the request on Friday, she said.
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The judge’s decision came after the four lost an appeal last week in a Bucharest court that upheld the judge’s Dec. 30 decision to extend their arrests from 24 hours to 30 days.
The Tates are likely to appeal Friday’s extension.
US Embassy Consul General in Romania John Gimbel, center left, leaves a police detention center in downtown Bucharest, Romania, Friday, January 20, 2023.
(AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru)
A post on Andrew Tate’s Twitter account on Thursday read: “I am being held while they ‘search’ for evidence. Evidence they will never find because we are not guilty. They have ignored and will continue to ignore and dismiss any hard evidence or testimony (that) we are innocent.” “.
“My case is not about the truth. This is about politics,” the post read.
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Tate, a former professional boxer who has reportedly lived in Romania since 2017, was previously banned from several prominent social media platforms for expressing misogynistic views and hate speech.
Romanian authorities arrived at a compound near Bucharest last week and seized a fleet of luxury cars that included a blue Rolls-Royce, a Ferrari and a Porsche. They reported the seizure of assets with an estimated value of $3.9 million.
Andrew Tate and Tristan Tate are escorted by police officers out of the Bucharest Directorate of Investigation of Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) headquarters after being detained for 24 hours, in Bucharest, Romania, December 29, 2022.
(Photos Inquam/Octav Ganea via REUTERS)
Prosecutors have said that if they can prove the owners made money through illicit activities such as human smuggling, the assets would be used to cover the costs of the investigation and compensate the victims. Tate also unsuccessfully appealed the asset seizure.
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After Tates and the two women were arrested in December, DIICOT said in a statement that it had identified six victims in the human trafficking case who were subjected to “acts of physical violence and mental coercion” and were sexually exploited by the members of the alleged criminal group.
The agency said the victims were lured under pretenses of love and then intimidated, kept under surveillance and subjected to other control tactics while being forced to participate in recorded pornographic acts.
