BUCHAREST — Former
professional kickboxer and controversial influencer Andrew Tate appeared
in a Romanian court Friday following his arrest for alleged human trafficking,
rape, and forming a criminal group.
اضافة اعلان
The move came just days after Tate had a
heated Twitter exchange with Swedish environmentalist Greta Thunberg which
internet users speculated helped Romanian police to locate and arrest him.
Tate, who holds British and US nationality,
and his brother Tristan were detained for an initial "24 hours", a
spokeswoman for a Romanian body fighting organized crime, Ramona Bolla, told
AFP on Friday.
A court hearing in Bucharest to decide
whether to put the four suspects — the Tate brothers and two Romanian citizens —
in pre-trial detention for 30 days began at 2pm (1200 GMT).
Viral Twitter exchanges between Tate and
Thunberg this week on subjects ranging from cars with "enormous
emissions" to pizza boxes, fuelled speculation on social media that the
arrests followed Tate's spats with the Swedish activist.
Internet users speculated that the brand of
pizza featured in a video posted by Tate in his angry exchanges with Thunberg
helped police confirm Tate’s presence in Romania.
Thunberg quipped on Twitter that "this
is what happens when you don’t recycle your pizza boxes”.
"It's not related," spokeswoman
Bolla told AFP.
"To determine whether a person is in
the country or not, we use a whole range of means", she added, stressing that
"arrest warrants and searches" had already been in place.
Greta Thunberg's spokesperson confirmed to
AFP that her tweet this morning, which garnered about 1.6 million likes so far,
was in fact a "joke", adding that the Romanian authorities "have
not been in touch with her".
Since the beginning of 2021, the prosecution
has been investigating the suspects and had already searched Tate's villa in
April.
According to a DIICOT statement issued
Thursday, the influencer, his brother and two Romanians are suspected of "organized
crimes", "rape" and "human trafficking" in several
countries.
So far six potential victims have been
identified.
The suspects recruited and exploited women
by coercing them into "forced labor ... and pornographic acts with a view
to producing and disseminating such material" online to "obtain
substantial financial benefits".
Five locations were raided across Romania as
part of the investigation.
Tate appeared on the Big Brother television
show in 2016, but was removed after a video emerged showing him attacking a
woman.
Tate, who moved to Romania several
years ago with Tristan, has been banned from many social media platforms for
misogynistic remarks and hate speech, but was allowed back on Twitter
after Elon Musk bought the company.
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