BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Online influencer Andrew Tate was detained in Romania and handed an arrest warrant issued by British authorities, his spokesperson said Tuesday.
Tate, 37, and his brother Tristan Tate were detained Monday evening for 24 hours on allegations of sexual aggression in a U.K. case dating back to 2012-2015, spokesperson Mateea Petrescu said.
She said the Bucharest Court of Appeal is set to make a “pivotal decision” Tuesday on whether to execute the warrants issued by U.K.’s Westminster Magistrates Court.
Four women had reported Tate to the U.K. authorities for alleged sexual violence and physical abuse, but the Crown Prosecution Service decided not to prosecute him. The alleged victims then turned to crowdfunding to cover their legal costs as they pursue a civil case against him.
“We handed over our evidence about the horrific acts of violence we endured and waited for action. But four years later we were told the U.K. authorities would not prosecute him,” they state on their campaign page. “It’s our one remaining route to hold him accountable.”
Petrescu said Tuesday that the Tate brothers, who are dual U.K. and U.S. citizens, reject the charges and “express profound disappointment that such serious allegations are being resurrected without substantial new evidence.”
Tate is charged in a separate case in Romania with rape, human trafficking and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women. He was arrested near Bucharest in December 2022 along with his brother Tristan and two Romanian women. Romanian prosecutors formally indicted all four in June last year and they have denied the allegations.
Andrew Tate, who has amassed 8.9 million followers on the social media platform X, has repeatedly claimed that prosecutors in Romania have no evidence against him and that there is a political conspiracy to silence him. He was previously banned from various prominent social media platforms for expressing misogynistic views and for hate speech.
A post appeared on Tate’s X account on Tuesday that read, “The Matrix is afraid, but I only fear God.” He uses the term “Matrix” to refer to what he sees as a wide-ranging conspiracy targeting men.
After their arrest in Romania, the Tate brothers were held for three months in police detention before being moved to house arrest. They were later restricted to the areas of Bucharest Municipality and nearby Ilfov County. Currently, they cannot leave Romania. The legal case in Romania is still being discussed in the preliminary chamber stages, a process in which the defendants can challenge prosecutors’ evidence. No trial date has been set.
Last October, lawyers for the alleged abuse victims held a news conference in Bucharest in which they accused Tate and his followers of trying to intimidate their clients into silence.
In January, Tate won an appeal challenging the seizure of his assets by Romanian authorities, which were confiscated in the weeks after he was arrested.
Romanian authorities had seized 15 luxury cars, 14 designer watches and cash in several currencies worth an estimated 3.6 million euros ($3.9 million).
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