The warrant stems from charges in the United Kingdom that include “allegations of sexual aggression” from 2012 through 2015, according to the statement from the Tate brothers.
Spokeswoman Mateea Petrescu said the two could be held for longer than 24 hours. An appeals court in Bucharest is expected to make a decision on next steps.
Andrew Tate was arrested in Romania with his brother in December 2022 on charges of rape and human trafficking in a separate case. He was released from house arrest last August after months in detention.
The brothers — as well as two Romanian female suspects also accused of running a trafficking ring — were required to remain in the country as that case proceeds and to report regularly to a police station, according to a judicial ruling. Romanian prosecutors had indicted them in June, referring the case for trial. They deny the charges.
Tuesday’s statement from the Tate brothers said they reject the U.K. charges and “express profound disappointment that such serious allegations are being resurrected without substantial new evidence,” years after being dismissed by Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service. The service did not immediately respond to a request for comment early Tuesday.
Andrew Tate faced a number of sexual assault allegations in the U.K., where he and his brother had run an adult webcam business before moving to Romania.
The Romanian police on Tuesday did not specify which charges prompted the warrant from British authorities.
McCue Jury & Partners, a London-based law firm, said it was representing four British women who accuse Andrew Tate of rape and serious physical and sexual assaults during the same period as the charges in the warrant. It said in a statement Tuesday that it had urged British police to “immediately seek a warrant” for Tate’s detention and extradition after concerns that he may try to flee Romania.
“Today’s news is very welcome as it had been a significant concern to many that Tate would seek to avoid justice in Romania and abroad,” said Matthew Jury, a managing partner at the firm.
Andrew Tate, a former kickboxer who built an online persona around hyper-masculinity that drew millions of followers, has dual British and American citizenship.
He has said that people who are raped “bear some responsibility” and that women are the property of their husbands, and has been banned from several social media platforms over misogynist remarks. Fans have called him the “king of toxic masculinity.”
The 2022 trafficking case against him in Romania was triggered when the U.S. Embassy in Bucharest tipped off Romanian police that an American citizen was being held against her will in a property belonging to the Tates. Tate has portrayed the investigation as an attempt to curb his influence.
Loveday Morris contributed to this report.