By Octav Ganea
BUCHAREST (Reuters) -Internet personality Andrew Tate’s home near Bucharest was raided by law enforcement on Wednesday, a Reuters witness said, as Romanian police launched four searches in an investigation into crimes including human trafficking and sex with a minor.
A self-described misogynist, social media influencer Tate has gained millions of fans by promoting an ultra-masculine lifestyle that critics say denigrates women.
He was already indicted in mid-2023 along with his brother Tristan and two Romanian female suspects for human trafficking, rape and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women, allegations they denied.
A photographer working for Reuters who was outside Tate’s home said about a dozen masked law enforcement officers had entered the property, before escorting Tate out of the house to a car.
“Anything to put me in jail except to give me a trial. No trial, no judge, this country is crazy,” Tate told reporters as he was taken to the car. He was not wearing handcuffs.
Romania’s anti-organised crime prosecuting unit DIICOT said it had conducted four home searches within Ilfov county and the Bucharest municipality.
It said the investigation concerned “a criminal case regarding the commission of the crimes of setting up an organised criminal group, trafficking of minors, human trafficking, sexual intercourse with a minor, influencing statements and money laundering”.
Tate’s representatives confirmed the raid on his home and said the brothers’ legal team would “ensure all formalities are carried out correctly”.
In July, a Romanian court of appeal overturned a previous ruling which allowed Tate free movement within the European Union while awaiting trial on charges of human trafficking.
(Reporting by Octav Ganea and Stoyan Nenov; Writing by Pawel Florkiewicz, Alan Charlish and Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk; Editing by Bernadette Baum, Shounak Dasgupta and Helen Popper)
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