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A court in Romania's capital Bucharest on Tuesday upheld the 30-day arrest of divisive social media personality Andrew Tate on charges of organised crime, human trafficking and rape, reported euronews.
Ramona Bolla, a spokesperson for Romanian anti-organized crime agency DIICOT, said the court rejected an appeal by Tate against a judge's earlier decision to extend his arrest from 24 hours to 30 days. Earlier, Romania court ordered a month-long detention of Andrew Tate and his brother, Tristan, in connection with human trafficking and rape case. Tate, his brother Tristan and two Romanian female suspects were detained by Romanian anti-organized crime prosecutors at the end of December pending a criminal investigation. They have denied wrongdoing through an attorney and have challenged the arrest warrant, reported euronews. The court rejected all four appeals against a judge's December 30 decision to grant prosecutors' request to extend the arrest period. A document explaining the judge's reasoning said "the possibility of them evading investigations cannot be ignored" and that they could "leave Romania and settle in countries that do not allow extradition". DIICOT alleged that the four suspects formed an organised criminal group to commit the crime of human trafficking. They alleged that two of the suspects misled the victims "into believing that they intended to enter into a marriage/cohabitation relationship" while transporting the victims to Romania. The authorities also said one of the suspects raped a victim on two separate occasions in March this year. Tate, who is famous for his controversial behaviour over social media, is a former kickboxer with 76 wins and nine losses in his kickboxing career, as per the UK-based Sports Bible. The social media influencer was in news recently after he got involved in a heated spat with Swedish activist Greta Thunberg on Twitter, which later went viral. Tate, who is well-known for his many misogynistic remarks, started the argument by tagging Thunberg in a tweet about his 33 vehicles and their emissions, which contribute to pollution, according to New York Post. Taking to Twitter, Tate wrote, "Hello @GretaThunberg I have 33 cars. My Bugatti has a w16 8.0L quad turbo. My TWO Ferrari 812 competizione have 6.5L v12s. This is just the start. Please provide your email address so I can send a complete list of my car collection and their respective enormous emissions." To which, Thunberg responded with a stinging jab and wrote "yes, please do enlighten me." (ANI)
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