Romania Police raids Andrew Tate's home as new allegations emerge against him

Masked police officers in Romania carried out fresh raids early Wednesday at the home of divisive internet influencer Andrew Tate who is awaiting trial on charges of human trafficking rape and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit womenRomanias antiorganized crime agency DIICOT said it was searching four homes in the counties of Bucharest and nearby Ilfov investigating allegations of human trafficking the trafficking of minors sexual intercourse with a minor influencing statements and money laundering The agency added that hearings will later be held at its headquartersTates 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 Petrescu did not address the allegations involving minorsDozens of police officers and forensic personnel were scouring Tates large property on the edge of the capital 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 statementThe 37yearold Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan 36 both former kickboxers and dual BritishUS citizens who have both amassed millions of social media followers were arrested in 2022 near Bucharest along with two Romanian women Romanian prosecutors formally indicted all four last year They have denied the allegationsIn April the Bucharest Tribunal ruled that the prosecutors case file against the four met the legal criteria and that a trial could start but did not set a date for it to begin That ruling came after the legal case had been discussed for months in the preliminary chamber stages a process in which the defendants can challenge prosecutors evidence and case fileAfter 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 RomaniaLast 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 27member European Union The decision was finalAndrew Tate who is known for expressing misogynistic views online and has amassed 99 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 speechIn March the Tate brothers also appeared at the Bucharest Court of Appeal in a separate case after British authorities issued arrest warrants over allegations of sexual aggression in a UK case dating back to 20122015 The appeals court granted the British request to extradite the the Tates to the UK but only after legal proceedings in Romania have concludedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever