Indian envoy warns of 'big red line,' days after charges laid in Nijjar case
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
Andrew Tate, the influential internet personality who is detained in Romania on suspicion of organized crime and human trafficking, appeared at prosecutors' offices on Thursday for a second day as forensic examinations continue of digital devices that have been confiscated in the case, an official said.
Tate, 36, a dual British-U.S. citizen who has nearly 5 million followers on Twitter, was initially detained in late December in Romania's capital, Bucharest. His brother, Tristan, and two Romanian women are also detained in the same case.
The Tates arrived Thursday morning handcuffed together as they were escorted by law enforcement officials into the Bucharest offices of DIICOT, Romania's Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism, where devices such as mobile phones and laptops are being searched by specialists for further evidence.
Ramona Bolla, a DIICOT spokesperson, confirmed to The Associated Press that the forensic searches of the digital devices were continuing Thursday because there are "multiple devices" seized in the case and it will take time to go through them all.
As the brothers arrived at the DIICOT offices, Tristan Tate told reporters: "What evidence is there? ... There is none, that should be the story, please cover that story. The police have fabricated the evidence. There is no evidence. There is no victim."
Andrew Tate had told reporters as he left Wednesday, that "there is no evidence in my file, because I've done nothing wrong."
Both brothers will remain in detention until late February after a judge on Friday granted prosecutors' request to extend for a second time their detention by 30 days.
An online petition launched on Jan. 22 to "free Andrew and Tristan Tate from unjust imprisonment" alleges that "the Judiciary, Prosecutor and DIICOT have acted unfairly in their detention of the Tate brothers." It has so far garnered 52,000 signatures. Andrew Tate's Twitter following has increased by at least several hundred thousand since he was arrested in December.
Andrew Tate, a former professional kickboxer who has reportedly lived in Romania since 2017, was previously banned from various prominent social media platforms for expressing misogynistic views and hate speech.
After the Tates and the two women were arrested, DIICOT said in a statement that it had identified six victims in the human trafficking case who were subjected to "acts of physical violence and mental coercion" and were sexually exploited by the members of the alleged crime group.
The agency said victims were lured with pretenses of love, and later intimidated, kept under surveillance and subjected to other control tactics while being coerced into engaging in pornographic acts for substantial financial gains.
Earlier in January, Romanian authorities descended on a compound near Bucharest where they towed away a fleet of luxury cars that included a blue Rolls-Royce, a Ferrari and a Porsche. They reported seizing assets worth an estimated $3.9 million.
Prosecutors have said that if they can prove the owners gained money through illicit activities such as human trafficking, the assets would be used to cover the expenses of the investigation and to compensate victims. Tate also unsuccessfully appealed the asset seizure.
-----
McGrath reported from Sighisoara, Romania
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president's hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.
The U.S. paused a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over concerns that Israel was approaching a decision on launching a full-scale assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah against the wishes of the U.S.
Footage from dozens of security cameras in the area of Drake’s Bridle Path mansion could be the key to identifying the suspect responsible for shooting and seriously injuring a security guard outside the rapper’s sprawling home early Tuesday morning, a former Toronto homicide detective says.
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
Susan Buckner, best known for playing peppy Rydell High School cheerleader Patty Simcox in the 1978 classic movie musical 'Grease,' has died. She was 72.
Accused killer Jeremy Skibicki could have a challenging time convincing a judge that he is not criminally responsible for the deaths of four Indigenous women, a legal analyst says.
A Calgary bylaw requiring businesses to charge a minimum bag fee and only provide single-use items when requested has officially been tossed.
Two Nova Scotia men are dead after a boat they were travelling in sank in the Annapolis River in Granville Centre, N.S., on Monday.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
Whether passionate about Poirot or hungry for Holmes, Winnipeg mystery obsessives have had a local haunt for over 30 years in which to search out their latest page-turners.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.