BUCHAREST: Ex-professional kickboxer and controversial influencer Andrew Tate appeared in a Romanian court on Friday following his arrest for alleged human trafficking, rape, and forming a criminal group.
His arrest came just days after Tate had a heated Twitter exchange with Swedish environmentalist Greta Thunberg which internet users speculated assisted Romanian police in locating and arresting him.
Andrew Tate, who holds British and US nationality, and his brother Tristan were detained for an initial “24 hours”, a spokeswoman for a Romanian body fighting organized crime, Ramona Bolla, told a foreign news agency on Friday.
The court hearing in Bucharest will decide whether to put the four suspects (the Tate brothers and two Romanian citizens) in pre-trial detention for 30 days that began at 2:00 pm (1200 GMT).
Internet users assumed that the pizza brand featured in a video posted by Tate in his angry exchanges with Thunberg assisted police to confirm Tate’s presence in Romania.
However, Bolla has some other story and added that to determine whether a person is in the country or away, they use different means where they already had the arrest warrants and searches for the purpose.
Since the start of 2021, the prosecution has been investigating the suspects and has already searched Tate’s villa in April.
According to another independent report, the influencer Tate, his brother and two Romanians are suspected of “organized crimes”, “rape” and “human trafficking” in several countries
So far six potential victims have been identified in the process.
Andrew Tate past
According to reports they used to recruit and exploited women by coercing them into “forced labor and for pornographic acts with a view to producing and disseminating such kind of material online to get substantial financial benefits.
Tate appeared on the Big Brother television show back in 2016 but was later set aside after a video showed him attacking a woman.
Tate, who moved to Romania several years ago with Tristan, was banned from many social media outlets for misogynistic remarks and hate speech but was allowed back on Twitter after Elon Musk bought the company. – AFP/APP
