Romanian judge grants 30-day extension of Tate detention

A judge in Romania has granted a request to extend by another 30 days the arrest of Andrew Tate, the social media personality who was detained in the country on charges of being part of an organized crime group, human trafficking and rape, an official said on Jan. 20. 

Tate, 36, a British-U.S. citizen who has 4.7 million followers on Twitter, was initially detained on Dec. 29, in Bucharest, Romania's capital. His brother, Tristan, and two Romanian women were arrested and held in the same case.

Ramona Bolla, a spokesperson for Romania's anti-organized crime agency, DIICOT, told The Associated Press that prosecutors requested the second 30-day extension Thursday to keep all four in detention while the investigation continued. A judge approved the request Friday, she said.

The judge's decision at the Bucharest Tribunal came after all four lost an appeal last week in a Bucharest court against a judge's Dec. 30 ruling to extend their arrests from 24 hours to 30 days.

The Tates are also likely to appeal Friday's extension.

Ioan Gliga, a lawyer for the Tate brothers, said he considered the ruling Friday as "totally unjustified."

"Only an hour ago, the session was closed and the file has 20 volumes," he said, "I find it very hard to believe that someone has the physical capacity to study the file in such a short time, as only yesterday it reached the tribunal."

A post on Andrew Tate's Twitter account Thursday read: "I'm in detention as they 'look' for evidence. Evidence they will never find because we are not guilty. They have and will continue to ignore and throw away any and all testimony or hard evidence (that) we are innocent."

"My case isn't about the truth. This is about Politics," the post continued.