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Andrew Tate (m.) with his brother Tristan Tate (r.) in Bucharest

Photo: Andreea Alexandru / AP

The British-American influencer Andrew Tate (37) and his brother Tristan (35) are to be extradited from Romania to Great Britain.

The appeal court in the Romanian capital Bucharest decided this on Tuesday, the British news agency PA quoted a spokeswoman for the brothers as saying.

In Romania, the British-American influencer and his brother Tristan (35) have already been charged with human trafficking and exploitation of young women.

When this trial is over, they will be extradited to Great Britain - where they are accused of rape and human trafficking between 2012 and 2015.

However, the decision is not yet legally binding.

Andrew Tate is now blocked from YouTube, Instagram and TikTok.

But on X (formerly Twitter) millions follow him.

In Great Britain he is considered the epitome of so-called toxic masculinity.

A number of students imitate his gestures and comments, so that the fear of an increasingly misogynistic atmosphere increases.

The two men were initially arrested for 24 hours late on Monday evening in the village of Voluntari near Bucharest.

The basis was an international arrest warrant that Great Britain had obtained.

The brothers strongly deny the allegations, which are being investigated by police in Bedfordshire, central England.

The Tate brothers and two suspected accomplices were arrested for the first time on December 30, 2022 near Bucharest.

Three months later, this measure was converted into house arrest.

The defendants had been at large since August 2023 - with the restriction that they were not allowed to leave Romania.

There has been no court hearing so far.

Now there are different allegations than those in the European arrest warrant.

A British law firm representing four people in Great Britain who were alleged to have been victims of sexual violence by the Tates said it had informed the police about indications that the brothers wanted to flee Romania.

The British authorities then reacted.

The Tates' lawyers dismissed the suspicion of escape.

In Romania, the Tates and their accomplices are accused of forcing young women to take part in pornographic videos.

To do this, they are said to have used the so-called lover boy method: they used manipulation techniques to make the girls dependent on themselves.

Romanian investigators had identified seven victims, three of whom are plaintiffs in the proceedings.

In Tate's villa in Voluntari there was a video studio guarded by armed men in which the sex scenes were filmed and published online on adult platforms.

A woman wanted to escape from this villa in October 2021 and was "punished" with beatings by one of Tate's accomplices on his orders, Romanian media reported, citing the investigators.

Another woman was raped by Tate in March 2022.

Andrew Tate became famous in 2016 when he was kicked out of the British “Big Brother” show after a video became public in which he beat a woman with a belt.

Romania's public prosecutor's office had large parts of the Tate brothers' considerable assets confiscated: 15 properties, 15 luxury cars, 14 luxury watches, precious metals, shares in four companies, money and crypto coins.

But in January, a court ruled that Tate's valuables had to be returned.

lpz/dpa