KEY POINTS
- The Tate brothers have been under criminal investigation since April.
- Prosecutors said they had found six women who had been sexually exploited by the suspects.
- Mr Tate has said women are partially responsible for being raped and that they belong to men.
This article contains references to rape and sexual abuse.
Romanian prosecutors have detained divisive internet personality and former professional kickboxer Andrew Tate on suspicion of human trafficking, rape and forming an organised crime group.
Mr Tate, banned from many social media platforms for misogynistic comments and hate speech, and his brother Tristan will be detained for 24 hours alongside two Romanian suspects, prosecutors from the anti-organised-crime unit said in a statement on Thursday after raiding their properties in Bucharest.
The Tate brothers have been under criminal investigation since April. They declined to comment, but their lawyer confirmed they had been detained.
"The four suspects ... appear to have created an organised crime group with the purpose of recruiting, housing and exploiting women by forcing them to create pornographic content meant to be seen on specialised websites for a cost," prosecutors said.
"They would have gained important sums of money."
Prosecutors said they had found six women who had been sexually exploited by the suspects. Mr Tate has said women are partially responsible for being raped and that they belong to men.
Earlier this week, the British national was told to get a life by climate activist Greta Thunberg on Twitter after he told her he owned 33 cars with "enormous emissions".
In the original tweet, Mr Tate tagged the 19-year-old, telling her he owned 33 cars, including luxury cars with big emissions.
"Please provide your email address so I can send a complete list of my car collection and their respective enormous emissions," he tweeted on Tuesday.
Ms Thunberg quipped back on Twitter, saying Mr Tate could enlighten her by sending his list to "smalld--kenergy@getalife.com".
Ms Thunberg's tweet has gained over 3 million ‘likes’ on Twitter. She has not yet responded to news of Mr Tate's arrest.
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