Romania court orders influencer Andrew Tate held for 30 days
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Andrew Tate and Tristan Tate are escorted by police officers in Bucharest, on Dec 29, 2022.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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BUCHAREST - A Romanian court on Friday ordered the 30-day-detention of controversial influencer Andrew Tate following his arrest for alleged human trafficking, rape and forming a criminal group.
Ms Ramona Bolla, a spokesman for Romania’s anti-organised crime and terrorism directorate (DIICOT), said that four suspects had been placed in pre-trial detention for 30 days after their arrest late on Thursday.
They are former professional kickboxer Tate, who is a British-US national, his brother Tristan and two Romanian citizens.
Tate and his brother were initially detained for 24 hours, but prosecutors had asked a Bucharest court to extend the detention of all four suspects as part of their ongoing investigation.
Since the beginning of 2021, the prosecution has been investigating the suspects and had already searched Tate’s villa in April.
The four suspects allegedly recruited and exploited women by coercing them into “forced labour... and pornographic acts with a view to producing and disseminating such material” online to “obtain substantial financial benefits”.
Six likely victims have so far been identified.
Romanian police raided five locations across the country as part of their investigation.
The move came just days after Tate had a heated Twitter exchange with Swedish environmentalist Greta Thunberg, which Internet users have speculated helped Romanian police to locate and arrest him.
Viral Twitter exchanges between Tate and Ms Thunberg, 19, this week on subjects ranging from cars with “enormous emissions” to pizza boxes fuelled speculation on social media.
Some Internet users argued that the brand of pizza featured in a video posted by Tate in his angry exchanges with Ms Thunberg had helped police confirm his presence in Romania.
“This is what happens when you don’t recycle your pizza boxes,” Ms Thunberg quipped on Twitter following Tate’s arrest.
But Ms Bolla said on Friday that “it’s not related”.
“To determine whether a person is in the country or not, we use a whole range of means,” she said, stressing that “arrest warrants and searches” had already been in place.
Ms Thunberg’s spokesman confirmed that her tweet – which has so far garnered about 2.4 million likes – was in fact a “joke”, and that the Romanian authorities “have not been in touch with her”.
Tate appeared on the Big Brother television show in 2016, but was removed after a video emerged showing him attacking a woman. He moved to Romania several years ago with his brother.
Tate has been banned from many social media platforms for misogynistic remarks and hate speech, but was allowed back on Twitter after Mr Elon Musk bought the company. AFP
