Andrew Tate will remain under house arrest for at least 30 more days, a Romanian court ruled Friday.
The controversial social media influencer, his younger brother Tristan Tate, and two Romanian women were charged earlier this week with rape, human trafficking and forming a gang to exploit women.
On Tuesday, prosecutors from the country’s anti-organized crime agency, DIICOT, formally indicted the 36-year-old former kickboxing world champion and the other three defendants, whom they say formed a criminal group “in order to commit the crime of human trafficking” in Romania, the U.S. and the U.K.
The four have been under house arrest since late March. Earlier this week, DIICOT officials asked the court to extend the measure while they move forward with the investigation.
They have 48 hours to appeal the Bucharest Tribunal’s decision.
Andrew, a self-proclaimed misogynist, denies any wrongdoing. He claims he’s being targeted by Romanian authorities in an effort to silence him. He has dual British and American citizenship but has lived in Romania since 2017.
The four suspects were arrested in late December in a suburb in Bucharest.
Romanian authorities have since identified seven victims who say they were recruited by the group under false pretenses. The brothers seduced them by falsely claiming to want a relationship, then sexually exploited the victims, prosecutors said.
Andrew — who was banned from several social media platforms over hate speech and misogynistic content — was reinstated to Twitter by the company’s owner and then-CEO Elon Musk on Nov. 18, 2022.
On Tuesday, after he was formally indicted, Andrew tweeted a warning to his male followers.
“Men. This isn’t about me. This isn’t about whether you like me or not. This is about all of us,” Tate tweeted to his nearly 7 million Twitter followers. “Today it’s me. Tomorrow it’s you. Nobody is safe from these lies.”