Andrew Tate hails ‘main victory’ as Romanian courtroom removes proof from human trafficking case towards influencer and his brother
Andrew Tate hailed a ‘major victory’ as a Romanian court said it would drop part of the evidence against him and his brother in their high-profile human trafficking case.
The court ruled today to remove part of the evidence collected Tate and gave prosecutors five days to decide whether they want to pursue trial or have the case returned.
Tate was indicted in mid-2023 along with his brother Tristan and two Romanian female suspects for human trafficking, rape and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women, allegations they have denied.
Tate’s team said the ‘groundbreaking decision’ was a ‘triumph for justice’ and a ‘pivotal moment in their ongoing legal battle’.
The ruling ‘accepted the defendants’ appeals against the decision […] to send the case to court, addressing critical irregularities in the prosecution’s case and affirming significant violations of [their] legal rights,’ they said.
Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan, left, walk outside the Court of Appeals building, after a hearing, in Bucharest, Romania, Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024
Andrew Tate speaks on his mobile while waiting inside the building for a judiciary hearing at the Bucharest Appeal Court in Bucharest, Romania, on October 2
‘This decision comes as a major victory for the defendants, bolstering their longstanding claims of innocence and raising serious questions about the integrity of the charges brought against them,’ the team claimed in a statement.
Eugen Vidineac, lead counsel, said: ‘This is a monumental victory for our clients, who have maintained their innocence from the beginning.
‘The court’s decision to exclude key evidence and demand rectification of the indictment demonstrates the lack of substantiated claims against them.
‘Justice is being served, and this is a critical step toward clearing their names.’
Prosecutors have ‘to rectify the irregularities of the indictment and to specify… whether it maintains the decision to send the defendants to trial,’ the Bucharest appeals court said.
Tate, 37, is currently under house arrest in Romania and is awaiting trial on human trafficking charges along with his brother Tristan and two Romanian women.
Romania’s anti-crime agency, DIICOT, is investigating allegations of human trafficking, including the trafficking of minors, engaging in sexual acts with a minor, forming an organized criminal group, money laundering and tampering with statements – all of which allegedly occurred between 2014 and 2024.
The brothers, who are dual US-UK nationals, are also wanted in the UK, where they are facing allegations of sexual assault.
The pair have denied the allegations made against them in both the UK and Romania.
Earlier this year, Andrew Tate maintained that the rape allegation against him lacked ‘concrete evidence’ at the Court of Appeal in the Romanian capital.
Tate was alleged to have raped a woman staying with him in the eastern European country between November 2021 and April 2022.
Romanian news outlet Gandul reports that the woman asked to move to Romania with him and filed a rape allegation nearly six months later when he refused to give her money to buy a house and become a TikTok star.
The woman reportedly had a drug addiction when they met at the strip club she worked at in London.
Tate said he allowed the woman to move to Romania with him on her own.
Due to her drug problem, the woman was told to stay with Tate’s assistant, Georgiana Naghel, who was also arrested as part of the investigation.
Police claim Naghel and ex-police worker Luana Radu acted as the brothers’ lieutenants, helping to keep six women like prisoners and forcing them to make online porn videos.
Tate claims, however, that his accuser raised a complaint after he refused to give her money to ‘open a bar on the beach, to play in a television show and to become famous on TikTok’.
He alleges that the woman asked for €200,000 to buy a house for her sister in Chisinau, the capital of neighbouring Moldova.
Andrew and his brother moved into a converted warehouse in Romania, which they staffed with armed guards, in 2017.
On a podcast prior to his arrest, when asked why he moved to Romania initially, Tate said ‘being able to evade rape allegations’ was his motivation.
He added: ‘I am not a rapist, but I like the idea of just being able to do what I want. I like being free.’
Andrew Tate, left, and his brother Tristan, right, wait at the Court of Appeals building in Bucharest, Romania, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024
Andrew Tate leaves the appeal court after a judiciary control measure change hearing held at the Bucharest Appeal Court in Bucharest, Romania, 26 June
At their safehouse on the outskirts of Bucharest, the Tate brothers had a video chat studio where several women were found during a police raid in April 2022.
Prosecutors have claimed that the brothers lured women into the studio where they were sexually exploited through ‘acts of physical violence and mental coercion (through intimidation, constant supervision, control and invocation of alleged debts)’, and made to produce and share pornographic material.
Andrew had boasted in a YouTube video before his arrest that the women who stayed with him were not allowed to leave; he said, ‘you don’t go nowhere’.
Tate is also accused of raping the Moldovan woman, who he alleges followed him from London, in March 2022, which he categorically denies.
The brothers’ alleged sex trafficking victims claimed they would call them ‘slaves’ and duped them into becoming webcam porn workers with promises of marriage.
The brothers’ head of security told the BBC that some of the women who spent time with the brothers at their compound in Romania ‘misunderstood the reality and believed [they would] be [Andrew Tate’s] next wife.
‘When they realised the reality, it’s easy to transform from a friend into an enemy, and make a statement to the police.’
