Andrew Tate placed under house arrest after court appearance amid new charges involving minors
22 August 2024, 17:33 | Updated: 22 August 2024, 18:40
Controversial influencer Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan have been placed under house arrest after appearing before a Romanian court on Thursday afternoon.
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Romanian prosecutors asked a Bucharest court to remand the pair in custody as authorities investigate a new wave of allegations, including sex with a minor and trafficking underage persons.
The pair have been placed under house arrest for an initial 30 days, according to reports.
This new probe includes 35 alleged victims in all, with one woman said to be 15 at the time.
Speaking from outside the court, Andrew Tate said: "This is a set-up. It is absolutely disgusting. Thirty of those girls say we have done nothing wrong. Two are the mothers of our children, two have never even been here to Romania."
DIICOT, the Romanian crime agency, confirmed six people had been detained.
The Tate brothers are currently awaiting trial after Andrew was charged with human trafficking and rape.
Both strongly deny those allegations.
According to DIICOT’s allegations, the accused groomed “vulnerable” people, forcing them to make pornographic material while housed in a number of locations.
One of the men being investigated, who is not named, allegedly forced a 17-year-old foreign citizen to "perform sexual acts" in order to produce an online video.
The same man is accused of repeated sexual relations with a 15-year-old girl.
Andrew Tate has branded this current wave of allegations “pathetic”, telling the BBC DIICOT had “made up alot.”
Yesterday Romanian police carried out fresh raids at the home of Mr Tate.
DIICOT said it was searching four homes investigating allegations of human trafficking, the trafficking of minors, sexual intercourse with a minor, influencing statements and money laundering.
Tate's spokesperson Mateea Petrescu said in response to the raids that "although the charges in the search warrant are not yet fully clarified, they include suspicions of human trafficking and money laundering" and added that his legal team is present.
Dozens of police officers and forensic personnel were scouring Tate's large property on the edge of Bucharest.
"During the entire criminal process, the investigated persons benefit from the procedural rights and guarantees provided by the Code of Criminal Procedure, as well as the presumption of innocence," DIICOT noted in its statement.
After the Tate brothers' arrest in 2022, they were held for three months in police detention before being moved to house arrest.
They were later restricted to the Bucharest and Ilfov counties, and later to all of Romania.
Last month, a court overturned an earlier decision that allowed the Tate brothers to leave Romania as they await trial.
The earlier court ruled on July 5 that they could leave the country as long as they remained within the 27-member European Union.
The decision was final.
Andrew Tate, who is known for expressing misogynistic views online and has amassed 9.9 million followers on the social media platform X, has repeatedly claimed that prosecutors have no evidence against him and that there is a political conspiracy to silence him.
He was previously banned from various social media platforms for misogynistic views and hate speech.
