Andrew Tate, a social media personality known for expressing misogynistic views online, appeared Wednesday at a court in Romania, where prosecutors have charged him with rape, human trafficking and forming a criminal gang to exploit women.
Tate and his brother, Tristan, who is also charged with the offenses, arrived Wednesday at a court in the capital Bucharest, flanked by six bodyguards.
Prosecutors have also filed charges against two Romanian women in the case.
Romania’s anti-organized crime agency alleged that the four defendants formed a criminal group in 2021 “in order to commit the crime of human trafficking” in Romania as well as the United States and Britain.
The agency alleged that seven female seven female victims were misled and transported to Romania, where they were s€xually exploited and subjected to physical violence by the gang. One defendant is accused of raping a woman twice in March 2022, according to the statement.
Tate, 36, has resided in Romania since 2017. The former professional kickboxer has repeatedly claimed Romanian prosecutors have no evidence and alleged the case is a political conspiracy to silence him.
Asked by reporters “how much money have you made from trafficking women?” outside court ahead of Wednesday’s hearing, Tate snapped: “Zero.”
Tate’s spokesperson, Mateea Petrescu, said Tuesday that the brothers were prepared to “demonstrate their innocence and vindicate their reputation.”
The Tate brothers, who are dual British-U.S. citizens, and the two Romanian suspects were detained in late December in Bucharest. The brothers won an appeal on March 31 to be moved from police custody to house arrest.
The brothers’ legal team sounded optimistic in the wake of the indictment, telling local outlet Antena 3 … they’ll “embrace the opportunity to fight in court.”
As previously reported, Andrew Tate and Tristan were arrested back in December — they tried, but failed, to appeal a couple of 30-day extensions that kept them locked up until they finally got released from a Romanian jail in March.
They were both placed under house arrest after their release and Andrew’s been busy on social media retweeting support from his followers since Tuesday’s indictment.
