Former kickboxer Andrew Tate, his brother, Tristan Tate, and two others have lost an appeal to end their 30-day detention in Romania over rape and trafficking charges pending investigation.
On Tuesday, a Romanian court ordered that the suspects remain in the custody of Romanian police for the full 30 days pending a criminal inquiry into alleged human trafficking. The four individuals, which include two Romanian women, were detained by Romanian anti-organized crime prosecutors on Dec. 29, 2022. They allegedly formed a criminal gang to sexually exploit six women.
Andrew Tate Detention in Romania
The defendants have denied the allegations through their attorneys and challenged the 30-day arrest warrant. The Bucharest court of appeals rejected the challenge on Tuesday and said that the request was "unfounded."
One of the lawyers for the defense, Ioan Gliga, said that the arguments of prosecutors were that they had evidence. They then said that naturally, the defense's arguments were that there was no evidence against the suspects.
The first court to issue the arrest warrant for Tate and others, made the decision citing the risk that the suspects could evade justice by leaving Romania for countries with which Bucharest has no extradition treaty, as per Reuters.
Furthermore, prosecutors said that the Tate brothers recruited their victims by seducing them and falsely claiming to want a relationship. The victims were later taken to properties on the outskirts of the capital Bucharest and through physical violence and mental intimidation were sexually exploited.
The victims were allegedly forced to produce pornographic content for social media sites that generated large financial gains, prosecutors said. They added that one of the brothers raped one of the victims in March last year, which is the time that the investigation began.
Prosecutors also seized 15 luxury vehicles and more than 10 properties and homes that belonged to the suspects in Bucharest and Prahova and Brasov counties, said a spokesperson for Romania's DIICOT anti-organized crime unit, Ramona Bolla.
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Rape and Human Trafficking
According to BuzzFeed News, the suspects on Tuesday appeared in court in Bucharest to appeal their detention where Tate's lawyers argued that the brothers have small children in Romania.
When the brothers arrived in court, they were handcuffed to each other, and Tate was seen holding the Qur'an in his right hand. Muslims on Twitter quickly noticed this and the situation has since gone viral on social media platforms.
While some people praised him for what he did, others questioned his intentions of bringing the holy book to court. There were reports last week that four more cars that belonged to the Tate brothers were confiscated by DIICOT, bringing the total number to 15.
The 36-year-old former kickboxer was removed from the British version of the reality TV show Big Brother in 2016 over a video that appeared to show him attacking a woman. He later set up a "webcam business" which he described as "adult entertainment."
Tate later found global fame and was banned by Twitter for saying that women should "bear responsibility" for being sexually assaulted. Since then and following Tesla CEO Elon Musk taking over the social media platform, his account has been reinstated, BBC reported.
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