(8 May 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Bucharest – 8 May 2024
1. Car arriving at Bucharest tribunal, Andrew and Tristan Tate stepping out
2. Tate brothers entering court
3. Tate brothers exiting court
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Andrew Tate, social media influencer:
"It’s up to the judge, the judge will decide what the judge will decide. I remain rich and famous. Nothing matters. If I have to sleep in jail, I’ll sleep in jail.
(Reporter: What do you think? They’ll send you back? )
"Yes. No. Maybe so, I don’t think it really matters."
5. Car leaving
STORYLINE:
Online influencer Andrew Tate, who is awaiting trial on charges of human trafficking, rape and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women appeared at a court hearing in Romania’s capital Wednesday on whether to extend geographical restrictions against him.
Tate was initially arrested in December 2022 near Bucharest along with his brother Tristan and two Romanian women.
Romanian prosecutors formally indicted all four in June last year and all four have denied the allegations.
On April 26, the Bucharest Tribunal ruled that the prosecutors’ case file against Tate met the legal criteria and that a trial could start but did not set a date for it to begin.
That ruling came after the legal case had been discussed for months in the preliminary chamber stages, a process in which the defendants can challenge prosecutors’ evidence and case file.
Andrew Tate, who has amassed 9.1 million followers on the social media platform X, has repeatedly claimed that prosecutors have no evidence against him and that there is a political conspiracy to silence him.
He was previously banned from various prominent social media platforms for expressing misogynistic views and for hate speech.
After the Tate brothers’ arrest, they were 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.
Current restrictions by Romanian court stipulate Tate, who is a dual British-U.S. citizen, may not leave the country.
Speaking to reporters about his legal battle outside the court, Andrew Tate said: “It’s up to the judge, the judge will decide what the judge will decide, I remain rich and famous — nothing matters.”
“If I have to sleep in jail, I’ll sleep in jail,” he added.
In March, the Tate brothers also appeared at the Bucharest Court of Appeal in a separate case, after British authorities issued arrest warrants over allegations of sexual aggression in a U.K. case dating back to 2012-2015.
The appeals court granted the British request to extradite the Tates to the U.K., but only after legal proceedings in Romania have concluded.
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