Controversial influencer Andrew Tate and his brother were released from prison on Friday, March 31 after three months in custody, and placed under house arrest pending an investigation into alleged human trafficking and rape.
Tate, a British-American former kickboxer with millions of online followers, is under investigation along with his younger brother and two Romanian women for allegedly "forming an organized crime group, human trafficking and rape".
Tate (36) and his brother Tristan (34) were arrested in December and have been held in pre-trial detention since then, and the detention was extended again last week.
The appellate court "rejected the prosecution's proposal to extend detention" and ordered that the couple be "under house arrest", as stated in the court decision, which AFP had access to.
The brothers, who deny all the charges against them, were released from custody in Bucharest along with their lawyers at around midnight local time, and were greeted by chaotic scenes.
The media gathered at the exit, while young fans greeted Andrew Tate with shouts of "Top G" (gangster), which is his nickname.
Andrew didn't say anything, but his brother Tristan said the judges made the "right decision", and vowed to prove his innocence.
Their lawyer, Eugean Vidineac, said that they are forbidden to contact other people involved in the case and that they cannot "leave their home without the prior approval of the judicial authorities".
He previously emphasized that the brothers do not pose a flight risk.
The two men moved to Romania a few years ago, and Tristan has a young son who was born after his arrest.
As part of the investigation, Romanian police raided several locations associated with the brothers and seized many of their assets, including a collection of luxury vehicles.
A court document from January alleges that one woman was "recruited" from the UK after falling in love with Andrew Tate, who later brought her to Romania "for the purpose of sexual exploitation".
The brothers and two Romanian women who were also detained allegedly ran a human trafficking, recruiting and exploiting women, forcing them into "pornographic acts, with the aim of producing and distributing that material" online.
What was Tate accused of?
Andrew Tate has been accused of raping a girl from Moldova whom he met first on Instagram in January 2022 and then live in London, so that by March she would come to Romania, writes Reuters based on prosecutors' claims. "Nothing bad will happen to you," he wrote to her on Feb. 9, "but you have to be on my side," court documents state.
The following month, Romanian prosecutors say, Tate raped her twice while trying to enlist her in a human trafficking operation aimed at producing pornography for the Only Fens platform, a site that allows people to sell explicit footage of themselves.
The Tet family's lawyer, Eugen Vidineac, said that he could not confirm or deny information about the case while the investigation is ongoing.
The brothers used deception and intimidation to bring the six women under their control and "turn them into slaves," prosecutors said in the document. The two girls later told Romanian television that they were not victims and that the brothers were innocent. The lawyer says the brothers' alleged victims were not abused, but "lived on the back of Tate fame," the court document says. The man from Vidin said in the document that Andrew Tate and the Moldovan woman had sex, but said it was consensual and accused her of making up allegations of rape.
Prosecutors say that the Tates controlled the accounts and earnings of victims on Only Fens in an amount that was measured in tens of thousands of euros.
The brothers put women on TikTok in the operation to drive traffic to Only Fens because of the lucrative subscriptions the platform has, prosecutors said. TikTok said in a statement that Andrew Tate had been banned from the platform and that they had taken action against videos and accounts linked to him that violated the ban on "sexually exploitative content".
Photos of Tate on social media, in which he shows off his muscles, cigars and fast cars, have fascinated millions of teenagers.
Offering success tips, along with misogynistic and sometimes violent slogans, his online presence has made him one of the most famous influencers in the world.
In 2016, Tate appeared on the reality show "Big Brother" in Britain, but was removed after a video surfaced of him assaulting a woman.
He later turned to social media to promote his views, before being banned from the account for misogynistic remarks and hate speech.
Tate returned to Twitter - where he has 5,5 million followers - after billionaire Elon Musk bought the company.
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