Influencer Andrew Tate has been accused in Romania of rape, human trafficking and the formation of an organized criminal group for the sexual exploitation of women, writes the BBC.
His brother Tristan, friend Vlad Obuzić and two other Romanian women were also charged. All deny guilt.
The indictment states that they formed an organized criminal group in 2021 in order to traffic in people in Romania and other countries.
Seven victims were listed who were allegedly recruited by the Tate brothers with promises of love and marriage.
According to Romanian law, the trial will not start immediately. The case will first be sent to the court's preliminary panel, where the judge has 60 days to review the case.
How it all started
Andrew Tate's legal problems began when he was arrested along with his associates in late December.
From March until today, they have all been under house arrest in Bucharest, and the matter got complicated when Tate was presented with a lawsuit by lawyers representing four women from Great Britain at his estate in Romania.
They allege that Tate abused them, which included multiple rapes and serious physical assaults such as strangulation and beatings with a belt. All this happened, as they say, ten years ago while the influencer was still living in Great Britain.
Also, earlier this year, three women filed police reports for alleged abuse in 2014 and 2015, "Weiss" writes.
Romanian authorities opened a separate human trafficking investigation against Tate's friend, Vlad Obuzić.
Obuzic presented himself on social networks under the pseudonym Joe Lampton, where he published content similar to Tate's.
A misogynistic influencer
Tate, a 36-year-old British-American citizen, was fired from a British reality show in 2016 after a video appeared to show him assaulting a woman.
Over time, he became famous on the Internet for his statement that women should "bear some responsibility" for sexual abuse. He had millions of followers on the social network Tik Tok, where his content was one of the most viewed.
Because of this and similar statements, Twitter suspended his account. Despite the bans, it gained popularity, especially among men, promoting misogynistic behavior and a luxurious lifestyle.
AE/BBC/The Independent/Weiss
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