Divisive influencer Andrew Tate, currently detained in Romania on suspicion of organized crime, rape and human trafficking, on Monday arrived at a Bucharest court to challenge a decision extending his detention by 30 days.
The 36-year-old former kickboxer arrived at the Bucharest Court of Appeal handcuffed to his brother Tristan, who is held in the same case. Two Romanian women in the case are under house arrest.
The Tates were initially detained in Bucharest in late December and are looking to overturn a judge’s decision last Tuesday to extend their detention by 30 days for a third time.
If the court rules against them Monday, they will remain in custody until at least late March.
The brothers have already lost two previous appeals against prior 30-day extensions that have kept them in custody. They have not yet been formally charged.
Judges said they took into account the “particular dangerousness of the defendants” and their capacity to identify victims “with an increased vulnerability, in search of better life opportunities.”
Tate, who has lived in Romania at least since 2017, was previously banned from various social media platforms for expressing misogynistic views and hate speech. He has repeatedly claimed Romanian prosecutors have no evidence and alleged their case is a “political” conspiracy designed to silence him.
Romania’s anti-organized crime agency said in a statement after the December arrests 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 members of the alleged crime group.
The agency said victims were tricked with pretenses of love and later intimidated, placed under surveillance and subjected to other control tactics while being coerced into engaging in pornographic acts for the financial gain of the crime group.
