They face charges of human trafficking, rape and forming a criminal ring to sexually exploit women.
Bucharest:
Influencer Andrew Tait will face extradition to Britain on sex crime charges, but only after a separate case in Romania over human trafficking and other charges is concluded, a judge ordered on Tuesday.
American-born Briton Tate and his brother Tristan were arrested on Monday on a British warrant and released pending trial on Romanian charges.
A British arrest warrant for the self-described misogynist with millions of online followers stems from allegations by four women who have accused him of sexual assault in the UK.
The men will remain under Romanian court supervision pending a new court ruling on Wednesday.
At a court hearing in Bucharest, Andrew Tait dismissed the British charges against him as “reckless” and “over 10 years old”, saying he and his brother did not want to be extradited.
The ruling by Romania’s Court of Appeal allowed the men to be handed over on warrants from Westminster Magistrates’ Court, but delayed the extradition until the Romanian case is resolved, which could take years.
The brothers, who claim to be innocent, are accused of forming an organized crime network in Romania, the United States and the United Kingdom in early 2021.
They face charges of human trafficking, rape and forming a criminal ring to sexually exploit women.
They allegedly forced women into forced labor and pornographic activities to obtain “huge financial gains.”
After Tuesday’s ruling, the brothers’ spokesman Mateea Petrescu said the men would “continue to comply with Romania’s current judicial measures, which allow them to travel throughout the country”.
They were previously detained on Romanian charges but were ordered released under court supervision in August 2023.
Petrescu said the allegations in the British case date from 2012 to 2015 and “include allegations of sexual assault.”
Petrescu added that the allegations were “dismissed by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) between 2017 and 2019” but have now “resurfaced”.
Romanian authorities said in a statement that they had executed “two European arrest warrants issued by British judicial authorities for the commission of sexual offenses and exploitation of persons in the UK”.
-Potential escape plan-
Petrescu said the 37-year-old former kickboxer and his brother Tristan, 35, “unequivocally deny all accusations and denounce what they see as exploitation of the legal system”.
In June 2023, lawyers for the four women threatened Andrew Tate with legal action in a British court over sexual assault allegations and provided him with legal documents from the British law firm McCue Jury and Partners.
The women, aged in their late 20s and early 30s, said the crimes took place in the 2010s, when Tait was living in the UK.
The British law firm representing the women said the charges included “violent rape, serious assault and controlling and coercive behaviour”.
In a statement on Tuesday, the law firm welcomed their detention, citing recent news that they “may be planning to flee Romania.”
The company added: “We have written to UK police to draw this matter to their attention and urge them to immediately seek an arrest warrant for Tate to be detained in Romania and extradited to the UK.”
After the ruling, Petrescu dismissed claims of such a plan.
“We believe this rumor originated from a popular online influencer who misinterpreted a text message from one of our clients while on air. This is simply not true,” she said in a statement.
In 2016, Tate appeared on the British reality show Big Brother but was removed after a video emerged showing him attacking a woman.
He then turned to social media platforms to promote his divisive views.
Tate’s videos offer tips on how to succeed, as well as misogynistic and sometimes violent aphorisms, making him one of the most famous influencers in the world.
His account “Cobratate” on X has nearly 9 million followers.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
