A Romanian court upholds Andrew Tate's arrest on human-trafficking charges

https://www.npr.org/2023/01/10/ [login to see] /andrew-tate-romania-court-arrest-appeal-rejected
A court in Romania's capital Bucharest has upheld the 30-day arrest of divisive social media personality and self-described misogynist Andrew Tate on charges of organized crime, human trafficking and rape, an official said late Tuesday.

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.

Tate, 36, a British-U.S. citizen who has 4.5 million followers on Twitter, was initially detained on Dec. 29 for 24 hours along with his brother Tristan, who was charged in the same case. Two Romanian women also were taken into custody.

The Bucharest Court of Appeal late Tuesday rejected all four appeals against a judge's Dec. 30 decision to grant prosecutors' request to extend the arrest period. A document explaining the judge's earlier decision 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."