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Andrew Tate has lost his latest bid to be released from prison as the Romanian court upheld a third extension for his detention.
The divisive influencer, who is held on suspicion of organised crime and human trafficking, will be detained for another 30 days according to Ramona Bolla, a spokesman for Romania’s anti-organised crime agency DIICOT.
Tate, 36, a British-U.S. citizen known for misogynistic views who has 5.2 million Twitter followers, arrived at the Bucharest Court of Appeal handcuffed to his brother Tristan, who is held in the same case.
He made a bizarre triangle hand gesture on arriving to the appeal court in Bucharest today with his brother, having been transported in a police van.
As Andrew Tate exited the vehicle and walked towards the court house, he made a triangle shape with his thumbs and index fingers, still in handcuffs.
Pictured- Andrew Tate (left) and his brother Tristan Tate (second-left) arrive handcuffed together at The Court of Appeal in Bucharest, Romania, on February 27
The brothers were seen being led from a police van handcuffed together on Monday (pictured)
Tate (left) and his brother Tristan (second left) were seen arriving to the court in Bucharest with two other women, also in handcuffs (right and second right) on Monday
The pair were pictured again a few hours later leaving the courthouse, suggesting that they had made their arguments with the judges deliberating the brother’s challenge to a decision that extended their detention by 30 days.
Two Romanian women in the case are also under house arrest, and were also seen arriving at the court in handcuffs.
This was not the first time Tate has made the triangle gesture with his hands since his arrest in December. He has also made the same shape in his videos.
Speculation about what it means has been rife, with the 36-year-old once likening it to a ‘power up’, and something his late father used to do.
The shape has also been likened to a gesture from the yogic practice of mudras, which employs some signs that are believed to direct energy through the body.
But its triangular shape, it has been suggested, could also be a nod to the baseless Illuminati conspiracy theory, with one post on Instagram suggesting he was ‘requesting assistance from the Illuminati’ going viral.
Tate has previously denied the gesture is connected to conspiracy theories, although he has said before that he believes ‘the Matrix’ is out to get him – another word for ‘deep state’, or the belief in a secret, shadowy organisation that controls governments around the world.
Whatever the meaning behind the gesture, his fans have now taken to mimicking the sign to show their support him him, with Vice reporting teachers as saying their students have been copying it in schools and classrooms.
The Tates are looking to overturn the judge’s decision on February 21 to extend their detention by 30 days for a third time.
If the court rules against them again on Monday, they will remain in custody until at least late March as the investigation continues.
The brothers have already lost two previous appeals against prior 30-day extensions that have kept them behind bars while investigations continued.
They are being held alongside Luana Radu, 32 – a former police officer in Bucharest – and Georgiana Naghel, 28 – a model believed to have been dating Tate for almost a year. The two models are being held in house arrest.
None of the four have yet been formally charged.
A document explaining an earlier decision to hold the Tates in jail said the judge took into account the ‘particular dangerousness of the defendants’ and their capacity to identify victims ‘with an increased vulnerability, in search of better life opportunities’.
Tate, who has lived in Romania since 2017, was previously banned from various social media platforms for expressing misogynistic views and hate speech.
He has repeatedly claimed Romanian prosecutors have no evidence and alleged their case is a ‘political’ conspiracy designed to silence him.
Romania’s anti-organised crime agency said in a statement after the December arrests that it had identified six victims in the human trafficking case who were subjected to ‘acts of physical violence and mental coercion’ and were sexually exploited by members of the alleged crime group.
The agency said victims were lured with pretences of love and later intimidated, placed under surveillance and subjected to other control tactics.
This was while being coerced into engaging in pornographic acts for the financial gain of the crime group, the agency says.
In January, Romanian authorities descended on a compound near Bucharest linked with the Tate brothers and towed away a fleet of luxury cars that included a Rolls-Royce, a Ferrari and a Porsche.
They reported seizing assets worth an estimated 3.9 million dollars (£3.2 million).
Prosecutors have said that if they can prove the cars’ owners gained money through illicit activities such as human trafficking, the assets would be used to cover the expenses of the investigation and to compensate victims.
Tate also unsuccessfully appealed against the asset seizure.
Tate (left), 36, a British-US citizen known for misogynistic views who has 5.2 million Twitter followers, and his brother Tristan (right), are being held in Romania on suspicion of organised crime and human trafficking. Two Romanian women in the case are also under house arrest
While Tate maintains his innocence, Romanian prosecutors DIICOT said in a statement they had identified six victims in the human trafficking case.
They said alleged victims were held under constant supervision against their will in the armed safehouse near Bucharest and forced to make pornographic content to be shared online.
They claim the women were sexually exploited, physically abused and mentally coerced (‘through intimidation, […] control and invocation of alleged debts’) by members of the group for financial gain.
Prosecutors say they recruited victims by seducing them and by falsely saying they wanted to marry them or be in a relationship.
Their alleged accomplices, Radu and Naghel are facing human trafficking charges and are accused of being Tate’s closest lieutenants, helping to ‘coerce’ and ‘control’ at least six women to create social media porn content under house arrest.
Last month, the Bucharest Court of Appeal heard Andrew Tate’s defence against allegations that he raped a woman staying with him in the eastern European country between November 2021 and April 2022.
Romanian news outlet Gandul reported that the woman asked to move to Romania with him and filed a rape allegation nearly six months later when he refused to give her money to buy a house and become a TikTok star.
The woman reportedly had a drug addiction when they met at the strip club she worked at in London.
Tate said he allowed the woman to move to Romania with him on her own.
Tate was arrested after an online spat with climate campaigner Greta Thunberg.
A viral online war of words between the two saw the misogynist influencer brag about his collection of exhaust-belching cars.
‘Please provide your email address so I can send a complete list of my car collection and their respective enormous emissions,’ he tweeted, tagging Miss Thunberg.
She replied:’Yes, please do enlighten me. email me at smalld***energy@getalife.com’.
Tate then posted a video on social media featuring a pizza from a Romanian pizza chain. Some speculated that this allowed the authorities to confirm he was in the country, although this has since been debunked.
Nevertheless, Thunberg then tweeted: ‘this is what happens when you don’t recycle your pizza boxes.’
Tate (pictured), who has lived in Romania since 2017, was previously banned from various social media platforms for expressing misogynistic views and hate speech
Former police officer Luana Radu (left) and Georgiana Naghel (right) are suspected of assisting the Tate brothers in the crimes they are under investigation for
On a podcast prior to his arrest, when asked why he moved to Romania initially, Tate said ‘being able to evade rape allegations’ was his motivation.
He added: ‘I am not a rapist, but I like the idea of just being able to do what I want. I like being free.’
Andrew Tate’s views on women, masculinity and entrepreneurship, voiced in podcasts and shared online, became popular in 2022 as they were shared in short clips around social media.
He was ultimately banned from various platforms for misogyny and hate speech.
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