Andrew Tate loses appeal to ease court restrictions as he awaits trial on human trafficking and rape charges

BUCHAREST, Romania — Andrew Tate, the divisive social media influencer awaiting trial in Romania on human trafficking and rape charges, lost his appeal Thursday for the court to ease geographic restrictions on preventing travel outside the Eastern European country.

The Bucharest Court of Appeal ruled against Tate, who challenged a May 10 decision extending restrictions on the 37-year-old by 60 days, saying he could not leave the country. Tate had requested that he be able to leave Romania, provided he remained in Europe's identity-free Schengen zone, which Romania partially joined in March.

“It’s not about wanting to leave the country,” Eugen Vidineac, one of Tate’s lawyers, told reporters in court. “One thing is to travel freely and another is to leave the country. The right to travel is a constitutional right, it is a legal right, it is one of the fundamental rights.

Tate, a former professional kickboxer and dual British-American citizen, was initially arrested in December 2022 near the Romanian capital Bucharest, along with his brother Tristan and two Romanian women. Romanian prosecutors formally charged all four in June last year. They denied the allegations.

After their arrest, the brothers were detained for three months by police before being placed under house arrest. They were then restricted to the municipality of Bucharest and the neighboring county of Ilfov, but can now travel freely within Romania.

Andrew Tate, who has 9.3 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 had previously been banned from various prominent social media platforms for allegedly expressing misogynistic views and for hate speech.

On April 26, the Bucharest court ruled in favor of prosecutors' case against Tate, saying it met the legal criteria and the trial could proceed. However, no date has been set. The move came after the legal matter was discussed for months during the chamber's pretrial phases, a process in which defendants can challenge evidence and prosecutors' case.

In a separate case, Tate also faces a civil action brought by four British women in the United Kingdom, after a complaint was filed by the High Court in London, according to a statement made earlier this month by the law firm representing the four women.

The four men claim Tate sexually and physically assaulted them and reported him to British authorities in 2014 and 2015. After a four-year investigation, the Crown Prosecution Service decided in 2019 not to prosecute him. The alleged victims then turned to crowdfunding to bring civil action against him.

In a third separate case, the Tate brothers also appeared in Bucharest's appeals court in March after British authorities issued arrest warrants over allegations of sexual assault in a British case dating back to 2012- 2015.

The appeal court granted the British request to extradite the Tates to the United Kingdom, but only after the conclusion of legal proceedings in Romania.

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McGrath reported from Sighisoara, Romania.