BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Andrew Tate has lost his appeal in a Romanian court and will be detained for another 30 days, an official said Wednesday.
Tate, a divisive influencer and former professional kickboxer, is being held on charges of organized crime and human trafficking.
Tate lost his appeal at the Bucharest Court of Appeal against the judge’s Jan. 20 decision to extend his arrest a second time by 30 days, said Ramona Bolla, spokeswoman for the Romanian organized crime agency DIICOT.
Tate, 36 years old, an Anglo-American citizen who has almost 5 million followers on Twitter, arrived at the Bucharest Court of Appeal on Wednesday in handcuffs with his brother Tristan, who is detained in the same case together with two Romanian women.
The court rejected all four appeals and he will remain in custody until February 27 as prosecutors continue to investigate the case.
THIS IS A HATE NEWS UPDATE. AP’s backstory follows below.
BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Andrew Tate, the divisive influencer and former professional kickboxer who is being held in Romania on charges of organized crime and human trafficking, appeared before a Bucharest court Wednesday to challenge a second extension of his 30 days. detention.
Tate, 36, an Anglo-American citizen who has almost 5 million followers on Twitter, arrived at the Bucharest Court of Appeal in handcuffs with his brother Tristan, who was detained in the same case alongside two Romanian women.
All four, initially detained in Bucharest at the end of December, will seek to annul the judge’s decision of January 20 to extend the detention for a second time by 30 days, at the request of the prosecutors. They previously lost an appeal against an earlier extension.
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A document seen by The Associated Press explaining the Jan. 20 decision said the judge took into account “the particular dangerousness of the defendants” and their ability to identify victims “with greater vulnerability in search of better life opportunities.”
Ioan Gliga, a lawyer representing the Tate brothers, told the media on Wednesday that the defense presented “strong arguments” that the extended prison sentence “is not necessary.”
“The sample initially considered the value of this 30-day preventive measure and was significantly diluted by other means of testing administered in the interim,” he said.
As the Tates left the courtroom after a morning hearing, Andrew Tate said: “Ask them for evidence and they won’t give you any because there isn’t any. You will soon learn the truth about this case.
If the court rejects their appeal, all four will remain in custody until February 27 while prosecutors continue to investigate the case.
Andrew Tate, who has reportedly been living in Romania since 2017, was previously banned from various major social media platforms for expressing misogynistic views and hate speech. He claimed there was “zero evidence” against him in the case and claimed it was instead a political attack to silence him.
“My case is not criminal, it is political. It is not about justice or fairness. It’s about attacking my influence on the world,” he said in a post on his Twitter account on Sunday.
An online petition launched in January to free the brothers has garnered nearly 100,000 signatures.
Following the arrest of the Tate family and the two women, 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 psychological coercion” and who were sexual. exploited by members of the alleged criminal group.
The agency said victims were lured in with claims of love and then intimidated, monitored and subjected to other control tactics while being forced to commit pornographic acts for substantial financial gain.
In early January, Romanian authorities descended on a compound near Bucharest where they took a fleet of luxury cars that included a blue Rolls-Royce, a Ferrari and a Porsche. They reported seizing assets worth an estimated $3.9 million.
Prosecutors said that if they could prove the owners made money through illegal activities such as human trafficking, the assets would be used to cover the costs of the investigation and compensate victims. Tate also unsuccessfully challenged the seizure of the assets.
Stephen McGrath reported from Sighisoara.
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