Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan remain in custody until February 27 as a Romanian court extends their detention on charges of rape and human trafficking

Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan remain in prison until February 27 after a Romanian court extended their detention.

Tate (36), a British-American citizen with 4.5 million Twitter followers, was arrested on December 29 with Tristan and two Romanian women in Bucharest on charges of joining an organized crime group, human trafficking and rape.

Today, a judge granted prosecutors a further 30-day extension to their arrest, meaning all four remain in custody until February 27.

Tate, who is accused of recruiting and coercing young women to create pornographic content online, was furious with the judge’s decision and his lawyers said he was “arrested on a crime of speech”.

“We argue that, virtually as we speak, the Tate brothers are being arrested for a speech crime for what they once said in the online environment, and not for what they actually did in their personal lives,” Constantin Ioan Gliga, one of the defense lawyers, told Romania’s Gandul news agency.

Gliga added that the decision was “unjustified and totally excessive”.

The judge’s ruling came after all four – Tate, Tristan and Luana Radu and Georgiana Naghel – lost an appeal last week in a Bucharest court which decided to overturn a judge’s decision in December to keep them in detention for 24 hours to reduce to 24 hours, maintain to extend hours. 30 days.

Tate is accused of recruiting and holding dozens of women under house arrest “as prisoners” while forcing them to create pornographic content online via webcams.

Romanian prosecutors allege Tate recruited the women on social media platforms and lured them to Bucharest by falsely declaring his love and intention to marry them.

Tate (pictured on a private jet) is accused of recruiting and holding dozens of women under house arrest “like prisoners” while forcing them to create pornographic content online

How the king of toxic masculinity corrupted a generation: Andrew Tate’s anti-women rants got him more Google hits than Donald Trump – until he was banned by social media giants

Meanwhile, Romanian authorities raided a Tate property near Bucharest on Saturday to haul away a fleet of 15 luxury cars and 14 designer watches, along with cash worth an estimated 3.6 million euros (3.1 million pounds). .

The Romanian anti-organized crime organization said this was the case identified six victims in the human trafficking case who were subjected to “acts of physical violence and psychological abuse” and sexually exploited by members of the alleged criminal organization.

The agency said the victims were lured by feigned love and were later intimidated, monitored and subjected to other control tactics while being forced to appear in pornography.

Tate, a former professional kickboxer who has reportedly lived in Romania since 2017, has previously been banned from several prominent social media platforms for expressing misogynistic views and hate speech.

After the assets were removed from Tate’s property on Saturday, a message appeared on his Twitter account that read: “Anyone who thinks I’m a dealer is really an idiot” and “anyone smart enough to use that American system to do, will be unjust to understand, will be amazed at the injustice of the Romanian system.’

Meanwhile, one of Tate’s alleged victims said she was promised marriage to one of the brothers, according to court documents obtained by Romania’s Gandul news agency.

She was lured to Romania by Tate and Tristan “by misrepresenting their intention to marry or live together,” prosecutors allege.

The woman was reportedly picked up at the airport by a “female accomplice” after landing in Romania and was initially promised to stay with her “boyfriend”.

But the woman was told “she would be living with some girls who worked for the brothers,” court filings said. She was then allegedly forced to create pornographic content for the Tate brothers.

Romanian prosecutors claim the brothers “identified vulnerable people and exploited their need for love, trust and stability to create the appearance of a close relationship”.

Known as the “lover boy” method, this tactic is used by criminals to recruit financially strapped victims by luring them with gifts and promises of a better life abroad.

The brothers “had the task of recruiting people who were transported and placed in houses in Romania…

Prosecutors claimed allowing Tate and Tristan to avoid jail time “represents a threat to public order.”