A Romanian court on Tuesday upheld the 30-day arrest of controversial social media influencer Andrew Tate on charges of organised crime, human trafficking and rape.
Mr Tate, his brother and two Romanian citizens were arrested by prosecutors last month on suspicion of human trafficking, rape and forming an organised crime group to exploit women. According to The Guardian, the defendants were appealing against the seizure of belongings and prolongation of their arrest warrants. However, on Tuesday, the Bucharest appeals court ordered all four held in preventive detention for the full 30 days while an organised crime investigation continues.
"I am very disappointed - the measure seems excessive to me," the brothers' lawyer Eugen Vidineac said as per the outlet.
Meanwhile, as per earlier reports, a total of 11 luxury cars and more than 10 properties or plots of land have been seized so far in Romania. The country's organised crime agency, Diicot, said that the belongings were confiscated to prevent them from being concealed, to help pay for the investigation, and to pay damages to victims if the suspects were convicted.
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According to the BBC, after the arrests, the Romanian police alleged that the victims were "recruited" by the two brothers, who they said misrepresented their intention to enter into a relationship with the victims. They were later forced to produce pornographic content under threat of violence, the cops claimed. However, Tates' lawyer has said that his clients rejected all the allegations.
Andrew Tate holds both US and British citizenship. He rose to fame in 2016 as a guest on the British reality show 'Big Brother'. But he was soon removed after a video was circulated, which appeared to show him hitting a woman with a belt. At the time, Mr Tate said that the video had been edited, and called it a "total lie".
The British national then went on to gain notoriety online. He was banned from Twitter and other social media platforms, including YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, for his misogynistic posts. Elon Musk rescinded Mr Tate's Twitter ban just months ago.
