Andrew Tate swaps prison for house arrest after winning appeal in Bucharest

FILE – Police officers escort a handcuffed Andrew Tate to his brother Tristan, right, from the Court of Appeal in Bucharest, Romania February 1, 2023. ©AP Photo

Self-proclaimed misogynist and influencer Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan to be released from prison in Romania and placed under house arrest for 30 days after winning an appeal in Bucharest on Friday

The British-US national was arrested in December and has spent the last few months in jail on charges of organized crime and human trafficking.

The Bucharest Court of Appeal rejected the prosecution’s proposal to extend his pre-trial detention and instead ordered him to be placed under house arrest.

According to Ramona Bolla, spokesperson for the Romanian Directive on the Investigation of Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT), Tate’s representatives challenged a judge’s decision last week to extend his arrest for the fourth time for 30 days, Ramona said Bolla, spokesman for the Romanian anti-organized criminal agency, DIICOT.

The former professional boxer, who has more than 5 million Twitter followers, was arrested along with his brother Tristan and two Romanian women.

All four won their appeal on Friday and will remain under house arrest until April 29, Bolla said. None of the four have yet been formally charged.

Andrew Tate had previously been banned from various social media platforms for expressing misogynistic views and hate speech. The 36-year-old has repeatedly said Romanian prosecutors have no evidence and claimed their case is a “political” conspiracy designed to silence him.

DIICOT said in a statement following the December arrests that it had identified six victims in the human trafficking case who were allegedly subjected to “acts of physical violence and mental coercion” and sexually exploited by members of the alleged criminal group.

The agency said the Tate brothers recruited their victims by seducing them and falsely claiming they wanted a relationship. Victims were subsequently intimidated, placed under surveillance, and subjected to other control tactics as they were coerced into performing pornographic acts for the criminal group’s financial gain.