Andrew Tate has lost an appeal against a court’s decision to keep him under house arrest, his spokeswoman has said.
The divisive social media personality is charged in Romania with rape, human trafficking and forming a crime gang to sexually exploit women.
On Thursday, the Bucharest Court of Appeal ruled against the 36-year-old ex-professional kickboxer’s appeal, which challenged a court’s decision on June 23rd to extend the house arrest measure for 30 more days as the criminal case continues.
That decision was made days after Romania’s anti-organised crime agency, Diicot, formally indicted Tate, his brother Tristan and two Romanian women.
All four were initially arrested near Romania’s capital in late December and have denied the allegations.
A month is 1/12th of a year.
You should fully understand that one month IS A LIFETIME.
If you are not making AMAZING improvements every month, you are SLOW.
You have no excuse.
Every month there should be a brand new and better you.— Andrew Tate (@Cobratate) July 6, 2023
Before the appeal court’s final ruling on Thursday, two judges disagreed on whether or not to uphold the house arrest measure – so a third judge was brought in to preside over the ruling.
The Tate brothers’ spokeswoman, Mateea Petrescu, said the judges’ initial decision was not unanimous and that offered hope – even though they lost the appeal – because for the first time since their arrest “a judge has ruled that the brothers should be allowed to move freely in Romania without restrictions”.
“We consider this to be a great step toward the rightful exoneration of Andrew and Tristan,” she said, adding that although the brothers “have suffered important damages to their reputation, they remain optimistic and continue to put their faith in the Romanian justice system”.
In June, Diicot asked judges to extend the house arrest measure after the agency filed its investigation.
Under Romanian law, judges have 60 days to decide whether the case is sent to trial but it often takes longer.
Andrew Tate, who has been accused of peddling conspiracy theories online and has amassed seven million Twitter followers, has repeatedly claimed that prosecutors have no evidence against him and there is a political conspiracy designed to silence his views.
“Very strange that one judge can think the file is garbage and should be dismissed,” read a post on his Twitter account after the court’s decision, “and another can believe your liberty should remain permanently deprived. Based on the same file? I’ll let you speculate … I haven’t been outside in 7 months.”
The Tate brothers, who are dual UK-US citizens, won an appeal on March 31 to be moved to house arrest after spending three months in police detention.
Diicot alleges that the four defendants formed a crime gang in 2021 “in order to commit the crime of human trafficking” in Romania, as well as in the US and Britain.
There are seven female victims in the case, Diicot said, who were lured with false pretenses of love and transported to Romania, where the gang sexually exploited and subjected them to physical violence.
One defendant is accused of raping a woman twice in March 2022, according to the agency.
The women were allegedly controlled by “intimidation, constant surveillance” and claims they were in debt, prosecutors said.
I don’t break laws.
I didn’t break laws when I was homeless and hungry, I didn’t break laws when I couldn’t pay the rent.
I fought kick-boxing fights for 100 dollars a pop to keep the lights turned on.
But “I broke serious laws” when I was already worth 100 million dollars? 🤡— Tristan Tate (@TateTheTalisman) July 1, 2023
Andrew Tate was previously banned from several prominent social media platforms for expressing hate speech and misogynistic comments, including that women should bear responsibility for being sexually assaulted.
Several women in Britain are pursuing civil claims to obtain damages from Tate, alleging they are victims of sexual violence.
During their investigation, prosecutors have ordered the confiscation of the Tate brothers’ assets, including 15 luxury cars, luxury watches and about three million $3 million in cryptocurrency.
Andrew Tate rose to notoriety in 2016 when he was removed from the Big Brother house in the UK over a video that appeared to show him hitting a woman with a belt.
