Andrew Tate will remain under house arrest in Romania for an additional month, a court ruled on Tuesday. Rape and human trafficking are among the charges that the “divisive social media influencer” faces, according to The Associated Press (AP).
Earlier this year, after three months in Romanian detention, Tate and his brother Tristan won an appeal to transfer to house arrest. Last month, DIICOT, which is the country’s anti-organized crime agency, requested that a judge prolong their house arrest. It’s reported that the brothers, who were formally indicted in June and deny the charges against them, will likely appeal the ruling.
According to DIICOT, seven female victims allegedly drawn to Romania under the guise of love were sexually exploited and subjected to violence. Per the AP, Tate has claimed that “there is a political conspiracy designed to silence him.” On Monday, he told members of the press that “the moral arc of the universe bends towards justice in the end.”
The 36-year-old former professional boxer has been banned from various social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Tate has amassed 7.2 million followers on Twitter, where he has reportedly made “thousands of dollars under the site’s new ad-revenue program.”
“This sobering set of serious charges against Tate will hopefully be a wake-up call,” Salon’s Amanda Marcotte wrote in June. “When men brag about violence and egg each other on with competitive misogyny, it’s not just talk. Tate’s popularity isn’t just disturbing because teen boys are repeating his misogynist rhetoric in classrooms. There’s a very real danger that many of them are acting on his words in real life.”