Andrew Tate's human trafficking and rape trial can go ahead, Romanian court rules
The trial of controversial influencer Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan on human trafficking charges can go ahead, a Romanian court ruled on Friday.
The decision comes 10 months after Tate was indicted along with Tristan and two Romanian female suspects for human trafficking, rape and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women, allegations they deny.
Eugen Vidineac, the brothers' lead defence lawyer, said he had submitted an appeal against the decision.
“The ruling issued by the preliminary chamber judge lacks legal basis and reasoning,” he said in a statement.
“We have filed a strong appeal as we believe the ruling to be unlawful.”
No date has been set for the trial, he said.
In March, a Romanian court approved a request from the UK to extradite the Tate brothers on allegations of sexual aggression dating back to 2012-15, but only after the completion of Romanian trial proceedings.
Lawyers representing four British women who accused Tate of rape and sexual assault wrote to British police to immediately seek his detention after receiving information he was planning to flee Romania.
The Tate brothers were arrested in December 2022 near Bucharest and held for three months in police detention before being moved to house arrest.
They were later restricted to Bucharest Municipality and nearby Ilfov County, but can now travel freely around Romania.
Tate, who has amassed 9.1 million followers on X, has repeatedly claimed that prosecutors in Romania have no evidence against him and that there is a political conspiracy to silence him.
He was previously banned from various social media platforms for expressing misogynistic views and for hate speech.
After becoming a kickboxing world champion, Tate rose to notoriety in 2016 when he was removed from British TV show Big Brother over a video that appeared to show him hitting a woman with a belt.
In January, Tate won an appeal challenging the seizure of his assets by Romanian authorities, which were confiscated in the weeks after he was arrested.
Romanian authorities had seized 15 luxury cars, 14 designer watches and cash in several currencies worth an estimated $3.9million (£3.1million).
