Andrew Tate has been granted some freedom as he awaits trial on charges of rape and human trafficking in Romania. The kickboxer and lifestyle influencer was released from the house arrest that he has been held under since March. That came after Tate was arrested in December 2022 in connection to a human trafficking investigation. Tate's brother Tristan and two Romanian women were also arrested. Tate was formally charged with counts of human trafficking and rape in June.
While Tate will now be able to leave the large house he owns outside the Romanian capital of Bucharest, he is not entirely a free man. Tate is still confined to the borders of Romania. Furthermore, he is not allowed to be “in close proximity with any of the other defendants, any of the witnesses or any of the alleged victims and their immediate family." That stipulation was reported by Mateea Petrescu, Tate's spokesperson.
Tate Proclaims Innocence
Speaking outside his home, Tate used the opportunity to once again proclaim his innocence. “We’ve been completely innocent since the beginning of this. In January when I was thrown in a jail cell, the media reported and told the world I was a terrible person. They said that I hurt people and that I make a lot of money from criminal enterprises,” he said. “And here we stand seven or eights month later and I’ve not seen a single victim on the news. I’ve seen lots of people sticking up for me, lots of people defending me and I’ve not seen a single person stand up and say that I have hurt them."
This is a stark contrast to claims Tate has formerly made. Tate once called his own NSFW camming business a "total scam" and said that he used it to lure women into falling in love with him. Furthermore, Tate has previously said that he moved to Romania in 2017 in part to avoid criminal charges he was facing in the UK. Additionally, Tate all but praised corruption in the Romanian legal system as reducing his chances of facing additional criminal charges. The status of Tate's trial remains unclear. However, it's believed that it will start later this year.
[via]