Andrew Tate, a former kickboxer and social media influencer known for his misogynistic views and with 5.2 million Twitter followers, has arrived at an appeal court in Bucharest to challenge the decision to extend his detention.
Tate, who is being held in Romania on suspicion of organised crime and human trafficking, is looking to overturn the judge’s decision on February 21 to extend his detention by 30 days for the third time at the request of prosecutors. He arrived at the Bucharest Court of Appeal handcuffed to his brother Tristan, who is also being held in the same case.
Tate, 36, is a British-US citizen who has lived in Romania since 2017, was previously banned from various social media platforms for expressing misogynistic views and hate speech.
Tate has repeatedly claimed Romanian prosecutors have no evidence and alleged their case is a “political” conspiracy designed to silence him. None of the four people involved in the case have yet been formally charged.
The Tates, Luana Radu, a 32-year-old former police officer, and Georgiana Naghel, a 28-year-old model believed to have been dating Tate for almost a year, were detained in December.
The two women are under house arrest. Prosecutors have 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 brothers have already lost two previous appeals against prior 30-day extensions that have kept them behind bars while investigations continued. If the court rules against them again on Monday, they will remain in custody until at least late March as the investigation continues.
Last month, the Bucharest Court of Appeal heard Andrew Tate’s defense against allegations that he raped a woman staying with him in the eastern European country between November 2021 and April 2022. Tate said he allowed the woman to move to Romania with him on her own.
Tate rose to fame as a kickboxer in the 2000s and won the British International Sport Karate Association cruiserweight championship in 2009. In 2017, he moved to Romania and founded a self-described “webcam pimping” company with his brother, which he later admitted was a “scam,” using women to exploit customers for money.
Tate was removed from the Big Brother house after a week after footage emerged of him whipping and slapping an ex-girlfriend. He was banned from Twitter for comments attributing “some responsibility” to rape victims. His videos gained popularity in 2022 through TikTok, Instagram and YouTube shorts, with misogynistic soundbites shared millions of times.
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