Romanian court extends 'influencer' Andrew Tate's detention

A court in Romania on Friday ordered divisive social media influencer Andrew Tate to be held in custody for 30 days after his arrest a day earlier on human trafficking and rape charges.

Tate was arrested Thursday alongside his brother Tristan and two Romanian suspects after their properties were raided, prosecutors from the anti-organized crime unit said in a statement.

The former professional kickboxer has been banned from various social media outlets for misogynistic comments and spreading hate speech.

The British nationals declined to comment but their lawyer confirmed they had been detained.

An investigation into their alleged criminal activities has been underway since April of this year, prosecutors said.

'Exploiting women'

"The four suspects ... appear to have created an organized crime group with the purpose of recruiting, housing and exploiting women by forcing them to create pornographic content meant to be seen on specialized websites for a cost," prosecutors said.

"They would have gained important sums of money."

Prosecutors said they had found six women who had allegedly been sexually exploited by the suspects.

Tate has previously claimed women should bear some responsibility for being sexually exploited and that women belong to men.

After being banned, Tate's Twitter account was reactivated in November after the platform was taken over by Elon Musk.

Earlier this week, Tate was mocked by climate activist Greta Thunberg on Twitter after he tagged her and boasted that he owned 33 cars with "enormous emissions."

Tate, a former contestant on the UK reality show Big Brother, operates the 'Hustler's University', which claims to have over 160,000 users who pay a subscription to learn about topics such as cryptocurrencies, investing and business.

mm, jsi/sms (Reuters, dpa, AP)