BUCHAREST: Romanian prosecutors have requested that Andrew Tate be detained for 30 more days, the Internet personality’s representative said on Thursday, after he was among six people taken into custody in an investigation into human trafficking and sexual exploitation.
The former professional kickboxer and his brother Tristan were among six people detained on Wednesday for an initial 24 hours after Romania’s anti-organized crime prosecuting unit DIICOT conducted four home searches in Ilfov county and the Bucharest municipality.
He was already indicted in mid-2023 along with his brother and two Romanian female suspects for human trafficking, rape and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women, allegations they denied.
“The Tate brothers have been issued a proposal for 30 days preventative arrest by the Romanian DIICOT,” Tate’s representative said in a statement, adding that a hearing to decide on the detention would be held at 1200 GMT in Bucharest.
The representative did not address the fresh allegations against Tate in the statement and did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Before their latest detention the brothers had been subject to a travel ban, under which they were free to travel within Romania but not leave the country.
A self-described misogynist, social media influencer Tate has gained millions of fans by promoting an ultra-masculine lifestyle that critics say denigrates women.
DIICOT said in a statement that it had ordered the detention of six people for crimes including forming an organized criminal group, human trafficking, trafficking of minors, sexual intercourse with a minor and money laundering.
It said that it had requested that three of the detained defendants remain in custody while another one be put under house arrest.
According to DIICOT, two of the accused used the “loverboy” method, which involves convincing victims that they are in a romantic relationship, to force 34 victims into making pornography which they then sold online for proceeds of over $2.8 million and 887,000 tokens.
DIICOT alleges that one of the defendants forced a 17-year-old minor to produce pornography in Britain and Romania creating profits of $1.5 million. It also alleges that the same defendant repeatedly had sexual relations with a 15-year-old victim.
Romanian prosecutors ask court to extend detention of influencer Andrew Tate
https://arab.news/8ampv
Romanian prosecutors ask court to extend detention of influencer Andrew Tate
- Before their latest detention the brothers had been subject to a travel ban, under which they were free to travel within Romania but not leave the country
- A self-described misogynist, social media influencer Tate has gained millions of fans by promoting an ultra-masculine lifestyle that critics say denigrates women
US lawmaker Fine criticized by rights advocates, Democrats after anti-Muslim remarks
- Fine’s past comments include calling for the mass expulsion of all Muslims from the US, labeling of Muslims as “terrorists” and the mocking of the starvation and killing of Palestinians in Gaza, among others
WASHINGTON: Rights advocates and multiple Democrats on Tuesday condemned anti-Muslim comments by Republican US Representative Randy Fine who said on Sunday that “the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one.”
Fine, whose comments against Muslims have often sparked outrage, has dismissed the criticism and since doubled down on his remarks on social media. The Council on American-Islamic Relations designated the Republican US lawmaker from Florida as an anti-Muslim extremist last year.
“If they force us to choose, the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one,” Fine said on X on Sunday in a post that had over 40 million views as of Tuesday afternoon.
Some high-profile Democrats including California Governor Gavin Newsom called for him to resign while House of Representatives Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called Fine an “Islamophobic, disgusting and unrepentant bigot.”
Jeffries also called for Republicans — who hold a majority in both chambers of Congress — to hold Fine accountable.
“To ignore this is to accept and normalize it,” Democratic US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said. Fine’s past comments include calling for the mass expulsion of all Muslims from the US, labeling of Muslims as “terrorists” and the mocking of the starvation and killing of Palestinians in Gaza, among others. Rights advocates have noted a rise in Islamophobia in the US in recent years due to a range of factors including hard-line immigration policies and white-supremacist rhetoric, as well as the fallout of Israel’s war in Gaza on American society.
