Andrew Tate screams “You know I’m innocent” as he arrives with his brother at the Romanian court to appeal their detention on alleged sex trafficking charges
Andrew and Tristan Tate arrived at the Bucharest Court of Appeal this morning to challenge the extension of their sentence.
Andrew, 36, was heard screaming: “You know I’m innocent!” as he got out of a police car.
The Court of Appeal will shortly consider whether the brothers and their alleged accomplices pose a danger to society.
She is currently under investigation for alleged “formation of an organized criminal group, human trafficking and rape”.
If the appeal is successful, Andrew and Tristan Tate, 34, will be released immediately. Otherwise, they will remain in detention until at least February 27.
Former kickboxing champion Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan arrive in court to attend their appeal in Bucharest, Romania, on February 1, 2023
Andrew (L) and Tristan (R) Tate on their way to the Bucharest Court of Appeal on February 1
Who is Andrew Tate?
Andrew Tate rose to fame as a kickboxer in the 2000s, winning the British International Sport Karate Association cruiserweight championship in 2009 and an ISKA world title in 2011.
He later started a self-proclaimed “webcam pimping” company with his brother around this time, which he later admitted was a “scam” and used women to exploit customers for money.
Tate was removed from the Big Brother house after a week after footage surfaced of him whipping and hitting an ex-girlfriend, which both later said was consensual.
Tate moved to Romania in 2017 to live in a compound surrounded by armed guards. He was banned from Twitter for comments attributing “some responsibility” to rape victims.
Prosecutors have accused him of relocating women to Romania and using physical and emotional abuse to force them to produce explicit material to share and sell online.
Meanwhile, old clips of Andrew Tate were made popular by TikTok in 2022 when he promotes his online “Hustler’s University” — a paid online community that claims to help users “get rich quick.”
In March 2022, Andrew Tate was accused of raping a woman he had moved to Romania. Tate says the allegation was fabricated after he refused to buy her a house.
The brothers’ Romanian safehouse was raided in April 2022 after authorities believed two women were being held against their will. The Tates were eventually released, but the investigation was reported as ongoing.
Tate was restored by Elon Musk on Twitter, shortly after which he provoked a fight with Greta Thunberg and was subsequently arrested. The Romanian police held the brothers in preventive detention from December 30, which was extended on January 20 to February 27.
The brothers, along with Georgiana Naghel and Luana Alexandra Radu, are being held in custody in Romania.
They received a precautionary arrest warrant on December 30, 2022 and have since been held by the Directorate for the Investigation of Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) in Romania, where both are based.
Prosecutors initially argued that if the brothers were granted bail, they could exercise “psychological control” over the people they are accused of human trafficking.
Both have protested their innocence.
On February 20, the Bucharest tribunal extended the precautionary arrest warrant from January 29 to February 27 and could have it extended further.
The Tate brothers previously lost an appeal against their 30-day incarceration in January.
The four detainees have not yet been officially charged with any crime and have maintained their innocence.
Prosecutors allege the brothers lured women into the studio, where they were subjected to “acts of physical violence and psychological coercion (through intimidation, constant surveillance, control and appeal of alleged debt)” to sexually exploit them and trick them into producing pornographic material and to share.
Andrew and his brother moved into a converted warehouse in Romania in 2017, which they staffed with armed guards.
In their safehouse on the outskirts of Bucharest, the Tate brothers had a video chat studio where several women were found during an April 2022 police raid.
Andrew Tate is also accused of raping the Moldovan who is said to have followed him from London in March 2022, which he categorically denies.
In January, he told the Bucharest Court of Appeal that the alleged victim had voluntarily moved to Romania with him in November 2021.
Tate claimed she filed a rape allegation nearly six months later when he refused to give her money to buy a house and become a TikTok star.
“It’s about time this circus ended,” he said at the time.
DIICOT prosecutors allege that victims of the Tate brothers were held against their will in the armed shelter near Bucharest under constant surveillance and forced to share pornographic content online.
They allege that the women were sexually exploited, physically abused and psychologically coerced (“through intimidation, […] Controlling and pursuing alleged debts* of members of the group for the purpose of financial gain.
Andrew Tate (C) and his brother are under investigation for alleged criminal organization, human trafficking and rape