Andrew Tate Supporters stage massive protest in Athens

      Despite the fact that Andrew Tate and his brother are being investigated on charges of rape and human trafficking, this has not deterred his ardent, young, and passionate Greek fan base from organizing a demonstration in favor of him in the nation's capital.

   The major pedestrian shopping street in Athens, Ermou Street, was filled with youths yelling "Free Top G," a reference to self-described misogynist Andrew Tate.

 

You can ban a man, but you can’t ban an idea.#FreeTopG pic.twitter.com/kLbS3hNXMX

— The Real World (@therealworld_ai) January 15, 2023

  Authorities in Romania have reportedly seized assets worth close to $4 million that belonged to the controversial internet personality. According to a news release from the nation's Asset Recovery and Management Agency (ANABI), about 18 million lei, or $3,942,700, have been seized. 

According to ANABI, the 29 seized assets include cars, pricey watches, and sums of money in various different currencies.

According to ANABI, the seizures were carried out at the direction of the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism's prosecutors.

In a video posted by Reuters on Saturday, Romanian authorities are shown seizing many expensive automobiles, including a Rolls Royce, a BMW, and a Mercedes Benz, from a complex bearing a large "Tate" sign. As authorities investigated allegations of rape and human trafficking, Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan Tate were taken into custody in Romania in December.

Authorities in Romania reported that as part of the investigation, police executed search warrants at five homes and detained four individuals, including two Britons and two Romanians. The four suspects had been held for an initial 24-hour period, according to Romania's Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT).

According to their attorney Eugen Vidineac, a Bucharest court granted DIICOT's request to remand Tate and his brother Tristan in detention for a another 30 days. According to DIICOT, the four suspects conspired as part of an international criminal organization to smuggle people from Romania to the United States and Britain.

According to the authorities, two of the suspects transported victims to Romania where they later sexually exploited them using physical force and coercion. They allegedly led the victims "into believing that they intended to enter into a marriage/cohabitation relationship." Authorities also claimed that one of the accused sexually assaulted a victim twice in March 2022. According to the DIICOT statement, the organized criminal group "sexually exploited" at least six victims.

  Former professional kickboxer Tate is well known for his internet rants that have gone viral on male supremacy, feminine submission, and wealth.

   He was previously blocked from all of the major social media sites for openly supporting violence against women, but Elon Musk restored his Twitter account after taking over the business.

  He gained notoriety earlier this year when many adults, including teachers, expressed concern about the misogynistic notions he was inculcating in the brains of so many young boys. His TikTok account had roughly 11.6 billion views before it was deleted.

   The week before his arrest, Tate made the news over a Twitter exchange with Greta Thunberg, a Swedish environmentalist who advised him to "get a life" after he wrote about his several automobiles "and their corresponding massive emissions."

Online rumors suggested that Tate's presence in Romania was discovered because a specific pizza box could be seen in one of the pictures he shared during his altercation with Thunberg.

However, a DIICOT spokeswoman told Reuters that the pizza boxes had no bearing on the detentions.

Andrew Tate describes his decision to relocate to Romania in one of his social media videos from 2017. 

"One of [my reasons] is the #MeToo era," he says. "People say: 'Oh you are a rapist'. No, I am not a rapist, but I like the idea of being able to do what I want, I like being free."

"If she goes to the [Romanian] police and says: 'He raped me yesterday', they'll say ok, do you have evidence? Is there CCTV proof?"

 None of this provides proof that Mr. Tate engaged in human trafficking or rape, but Laura Stefan, a well-known anti-corruption activist and legal expert who works with the Expert Forum think tank, believes that Mr. Tate's assessment of Romania's stance on sexual crimes is accurate.

She said, "In a way, he's right. I think he made a good calculation, but listening to him and the way he expressed why he came here, I could identify to that. But she asserts that things are changing.

"Trafficking is a big issue in Romania, and I think the Romanian authorities have realized that this needs to be addressed," she said.

  That entails dealing with the victims and offering them support, in addition to looking into a few hotshots.

Romania achieved enough progress in 2017 to be removed off the US Trafficking In Persons report's radar. However, the report reiterated worries regarding Romanian officials' involvement in human trafficking.

This case, involving a divisive, well-known individual with dual citizenship between the United States and the United Kingdom, has renewed attention on how Romania responds to accusations of organized crime and sexual exploitation.

Less than two weeks remain for police to either charge the Tate brothers or gather sufficient proof to keep them in custody while the investigation is ongoing.