Masculinist influencer Andrew Tate and his brother, Tristan, arrested in late December in Romania in a pimping case, were released from detention on Friday March 31 and will now be under house arrest. "The prosecution's proposal to extend" their incarceration "is rejected" and "this preventive measure is replaced" by a "house arrest" with immediate effect, the Bucharest Court of Appeal had ordered during the day.
The two American-British brothers, who claim their innocence, are suspected of having deceived "several victims including minors" for "sexual exploitation", in particular for the production of pornographic films, according to the prosecution in charge of the fight against organized crime (Diicot).
Accompanied by one of their Romanian lawyers, they left the police premises around midnight (11 p.m., Friday evening, Paris time) with a full beard where they had been detained for three months, in a chaotic atmosphere, noted a journalist for Agence France-Presse (AFP). "The judges made the right decision," said Tristan Tate, his brother remaining silent. "We're going home," he added in Romanian.
About twenty onlookers and a few Andrew Tate fans had crowded in front of the building and greeted him with cries of "Top G" (for gangster), his nickname, while filming with their phones.
"They're just tired and want to rest"
The detention of the two men had been extended several times and for the last time on March 22, despite numerous appeals. Their defense has regularly denounced an empty file supported by no tangible evidence and refuted any risk of leaving abroad, arguing their clients' links with the country. Tristan Tate is the father of a baby born during his detention.
They are “prohibited from contacting anyone involved in the case,” said their lawyer, Eugen Vidineac, who said “being on the run is not a life the Tate brothers want to have. They're just tired and want to rest," he said.
With them were released two Romanians, a former police officer and Andrew Tate's girlfriend. They had been arrested alongside them on December 29 during a vast operation carried out after several months of investigation.
Involved in a case of sexual violence in 2017, Andrew Tate, 36, had left the United Kingdom to settle in Romania, where he opened casinos.
In April 2022, local police raided his mansion following the US Embassy's report that a 21-year-old American woman was being held there. Andrew Tate had emerged free. The Diicot had confirmed, on April 12, to have searched two buildings in the county of Ilfov, as part of the case, which led, at the end of December, to the arrest of the masculinist influencer and his brother, aged 34 years old.
Sexist and misogynistic content
Andrew Tate is a former kickboxer who has millions of online subscribers and who promotes masculinist theses. In parallel with his sports career, he has seen his popularity explode since 2010 thanks to his participation in several television programs. In the casting of the flagship reality show "Big Brother" in 2016, he was ousted after several misogynistic tweets and the broadcast of a video where we see him hitting a young woman with a belt. He told her she was consenting.
In recent years, Andrew Tate was one of the most searched personalities on Google, accumulating millions of subscribers on social networks. To his fans, he broadcast a host of sexist and misogynistic content.
Banned in 2017 from Twitter for asserting, in the midst of the Harvey Weinstein affair, that women "are responsible" for the rapes they suffered, he will be excluded in August 2022 from most other platforms. TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube shut down his accounts for "dangerous content", "incitement to violence" and "hate speech".
His Twitter account was restored when billionaire Elon Musk bought the social network. He coins his advice to men to help them become rich.
