Women exploited?

Influencer Tate arrested – extradition threatened

(Bild: AFP)

Is this the end of the eternal cat-and-mouse game surrounding the British-American influencer Andrew Tate (37)? He recently went into hiding in Romania due to allegations of human trafficking and exploitation of women, was imprisoned there, but was released again. Now he and his brother Tristan (35) have been arrested again - extradition to the UK is now on the cards.

The reason for the re-arrest was a European arrest warrant issued by Great Britain. This was reported by the Romanian news agency Mediafax on Tuesday, citing the police. The brothers have been charged in Romania with human trafficking and the exploitation of young women.

Brothers were last at large
The two men were initially detained for 24 hours late on Monday evening in the village of Voluntari near Bucharest. They were to be brought before a public prosecutor in Bucharest on Tuesday. Although the public prosecutor's indictment has been ready since June 2023, no court hearing has yet taken place.

The Tate brothers and two accomplices were arrested near Bucharest on December 30, 2022. Three months later, this measure was changed to house arrest. The accused were released in August 2023 - with the restriction that they were not allowed to leave Romania.

Contempt for women, loverboy method
The four individuals are accused of forcing young women to participate in commercially distributed sex videos in Romania. They are alleged to have used the so-called loverboy method: They allegedly used manipulation techniques to make the girls dependent on them. Andrew Tate denies all of the allegations.

Andrew Tate became famous in 2016 when he was kicked out of the British "Big Brother" show after a video in which he beats a woman with a belt became public. As an influencer, he had often put himself in the spotlight with misogynistic statements. In the UK and beyond, he is regarded as the epitome of toxic masculinity.