Romanian authorities have announced fresh raids in the investigation against Andrew Tate as seven homes are searched.
DIICOT, the prosecutors overseeing the case announced that seven homes were searched on Thursday morning in Bucharest, Ilfov counties and Prahova.
It comes after Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan this week lost their appeal against a judge’s decision to extend his arrest period from 24 hours to 30 days on charges of being part of an organised crime group, human trafficking and rape.
Ramona Bolla, a spokesperson for Romanian anti-organised crime agency DIICOT, said a Bucharest appeals court late on Tuesday rejected an appeal by Tate, his co-accused brother Tristan and two Romanian women arrested in the same police operation.
In a statement on Thursday morning, DIICOT said: “This morning, the prosecutors of DIICOT – Central Structure, in the continuation of the investigations in the case regarding the commission of the crimes of constituting an organized criminal group, human trafficking and rape, implement seven home search warrants, within the radius of Bucharest municipality and Ilfov counties and Prahova.
“Judicial activities are carried out together with police officers from BCCO Bucharest and SCCO Ilfov.
“We make it clear that 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.”
The four suspects in the case have denied wrongdoing and their lawyers have claimed there is no evidence against them – though authorities said they had made the arrests based on accounts from six women.
Ioan Gliga, one of the defence lawyers, said: “Prosecutors’ arguments were that they have evidence. Naturally, our arguments were that there isn’t evidence.”
A small group of supporters of Tate, a controversial 36-year-old social media influencer with more than 4.4 million Twitter followers, gathered outside the court for the hearing on Tuesday.
Tate was initially detained on 29 December in an area north of Bucharest along with the other three suspects.
Eugen Vidineac, a Romanian defence lawyer representing the defendants, said after Tuesday’s hearing that “all four of the accused have made statements” and that “the lawyers’ pleas were listened to entirely”.
DIICOT said after making the arrests that it had identified six victims in the case who were subjected by the group to “acts of physical violence and mental coercion” and were sexually exploited by group members.
