Andrew Tate detained in Romania over UK sex offense charges

Controversial internet influencer Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan have been detained in Romania on Monday over UK sex offense charges, Romanian police said on Tuesday.

Officers from the country’s Criminal Investigation Service and officers from the town of Voluntari “executed two European arrest warrants issued by the UK judicial authorities for the commission of sexual offences and exploitation of persons on the territory of Great Britain,” police said in a statement.

The two men were presented to the public prosecutor of the Bucharest Court of Appeal, who ordered their detention for 24 hours in the Bucharest Police Headquarters, the statement added.

Tate’s spokesperson Mateea Petrescu said in a statement Tuesday: “This bewildering revival of decade-old accusations has left the Tate brothers dismayed and deeply troubled.

“They categorically reject all charges and express profound disappointment that such serious allegations are being resurrected without substantial new evidence,” Petrescu said.

In court on Tuesday, the Tate brothers said they do not want to be returned to the UK, according to a reporter for CNN’s affiliate Antena three, attending a hearing at the Bucharest Court of Appeals.

“When I was falsely accused for the first time years ago, I didn’t understand how my life could be destroyed so much,” Andrew Tate told the judge, according to Antena 3.

Tate and his brother spent three months in police custody in Bucharest last year and were then placed under house arrest pending a criminal investigation for alleged abuses committed against seven women, accusations they have denied.

They were released in August and put under judicial control, with a ban on leaving the Municipality of Bucharest and Ilfov county without prior approval from the court.

The two are awaiting trial in the country on separate charges of human trafficking, rape and forming a criminal group to sexually exploit women.