A Romanian court has rejected Andrew Tate’s appeal against his detention, ruling that the former kickboxer, influencer and professed misogynist must remain in custody while an organised crime investigation continues.
Tate, 36, his brother Tristan, 34, and two Romanian female suspects were arrested by prosecutors on 29 December on suspicion of human trafficking, rape and forming an organised crime group to exploit women. Both men have denied wrongdoing.
The defendants were appealing against the seizure of belongings and prolongation of their arrest warrants, but the Bucharest appeals court on Tuesday ordered all four held in preventive detention for the full 30 days to which they were remanded.
“I am very disappointed – the measure seems excessive to me,” the brothers’ lawyer, Eugen Vidineac, told local media after the ruling, which was announced several hours after the two brothers left the courthouse after a six-hour hearing.
A total of 15 luxury cars and more than 10 properties or plots of land have so far been seized in Romania. The country’s organised crime agency, Diicot, said the belongings were confiscated to prevent them being concealed, to help pay for the investigation, and to pay damages to victims if the suspects are convicted.
The agency and prosecutors in the Romanian capital allege that the two brothers recruited their victims by seducing them and falsely claiming to want a romantic relationship – the so-called “loverboy” method of people trafficking.
The victims were then allegedly taken to properties on the outskirts of Bucharest where they were forced “through physical violence, mental intimidation and coercion” to produce pornographic content for social media sites, generating large profits.
Prosecutors have said the investigation, launched after one of the brothers allegedly raped one of the trafficked women last March, had so far identified six victims. Diicot released video showing guns, knives and money at the scene of the Tates’ arrest.
A judge who last week extended their preventive detention from 24 hours to 30 days said that given their “financial capacity”, the possibility the brothers may “evade investigation, leave Romania and settle in countries that do not allow extradition … cannot be ignored”.
Vidineac had earlier argued there was “no evidence” to support the allegations. He told the Romanian news outlet Gândul that the defence had not been able to properly study the prosecution’s file.
“I will point this out from the beginning, that even up to the present moment, the criminal investigation file has not been made available to us to ensure the effective defence of our clients,” he said in a videotaped interview.
He insisted there was “not a single piece of evidence, apart from the victim’s statement, leading to the idea that a crime of rape was committed”, and “no evidence either regarding … offences of human trafficking and organised crime”.
Vidineac said he believed Tate had been playing a particular kind of character on social media that may bear no relation to real life. “Can intent on social media stand as evidence in a criminal prosecution case?” he asked.
Tate, who holds both US and British citizenship, has gained huge notoriety for misogynistic remarks and hate speech, prompting widespread fears that his videos were radicalising young men online. He has said women are partially responsible for being raped, and that they belong to men.
On one podcast last year, he said he started making money by convincing girlfriends to videochat and share the profits. He has also said he moved to Romania from the UK because he liked living in countries “where corruption was accessible”.
He was banned from all major social media platforms, but his Twitter account – which has 4.4 million followers – was reinstated late last year after Elon Musk took over the company.