Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan, escorted by Romania’s Diicot police, in Bucharest on December 29. INQUAM PHOTOS/OCTAV GANEA/ Portal
The legal noose tightens around Andrew Tate. The former world kickboxing champion, who became a social media star by proliferating sexist and masculinist statements, was arrested in Romania on Thursday 29 December. The 36-year-old American-British is targeted by an open probe for “rape,” “human trafficking” and “forming an organized criminal group.”
In a press release published on Thursday, the Romanian Organized Crime and Terrorism Investigative Agency (Diicot) confirmed the arrest of “two British and two Romanian citizens” without providing their respective identities. After questioning her, Diicot prosecutors ordered her to be “detained” for a period of twenty-four hours.
Read the portrait: Andrew Tate: Journey of a Masculinist
Multiple British media outlets, including the BBC, assure the first two would be Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan, 34. Her lawyer reportedly confirmed her arrest to the Guardian. Videos posted on social media show the two men leaving a Romanian villa under police escort, armed and hooded agents. “We are unable to provide any details on the allegations of their detention at this time,” a representative for the brothers told the Daily Mirror. However, Andrew and Tristan Tate have the utmost respect for the Romanian authorities and will always help and support in any way. »
Among the other people involved and arrested, the local newspaper Gandul mentions a former Romanian policewoman suspected of putting pressure on young women to force them to participate in pornographic content.
Six victims “sexually exploited”
The Diicot assured on Thursday that since 2021 it had identified six victims who had been “sexually exploited by the organized crime group”. The latter would have been “recruited from British citizens” using the “loverboy method” or the use of false romantic feelings, according to police. After being persuaded to go to Romania, the victims suffered “acts of physical violence and psychological coercion” there in order to be “sexually exploited” for the production of pornographic content.
Andrew Tate, who was involved in a sexual violence case in 2017, had left the UK to settle in Romania, where he opened casinos. In April 2022, local police searched his mansion after the US embassy reported that a 21-year-old American was being held there. Already questioned, the mid-thirties had come out free. Diicot confirmed on April 12 that it had searched two buildings in Ilfov County as part of the case that led to Thursday’s four arrests.
Parallel to his sports career, Andrew Tate has seen his popularity explode since 2010 thanks to his participation in several television programs. He was ousted from casting the flagship reality show Big Brother in 2016 after several misogynistic tweets and the airing of a video of him beating a young woman with a belt. He told him she was okay with that.
Latest controversy on Twitter
In his last years, Andrew Tate was among the most searched personalities on Google and amassed millions of subscribers on social networks. The “king of toxic masculinity” sent a lot of sexist and misogynist content to his fans there. Banned from Twitter in 2017 for claiming that women were “responsible” for the rapes suffered amid the Harvey Weinstein affair and the #metoo movement, he will be banned from most other platforms in August 2022. TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube have shut down their accounts for “dangerous content”, “incitement to violence” and “hate speech”.
Back on Twitter thanks to Elon Musk’s takeover of the site, Andrew Tate had sparked one final controversy…the day before his arrest. To the former world champion who asked him for an email to share List of his great cars polluting, sent Greta Thunberg to address: [email protected] (“[email protected]”).
yes please enlighten me email me at [email protected] https://t.co/V8geeVvEvg
The global warming icon’s mocking tweet, shared more than 500,000 times, convinced Andrew Tate to respond with a video. With a cigar in his mouth, he asks for pizzas to be delivered, the boxes of which he wants to be sure will not be recycled… These boxes come from a Romanian restaurant.
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On social networks, some have made the connection between the arrests and the video that would have confirmed to the police the presence of Andrew Tate at his Romanian villa. A version presented by English-language news site CNN-News18, based in India. For its part, the Romanian newspaper Gandul reports that the Diicot prosecutors followed the activities of the two brothers on social networks to ensure their presence in the country. “Here’s what happens when you don’t recycle your pizza boxes,” he said tweeted, crushing, Greta Thunberg. However, no authority has confirmed the role of the pizzas in the further investigation.
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