1. Who is Andrew Tate again?
The 36-year-old Briton Andrew Tate was active as a kickboxer for several years from 2005, but is best known worldwide for his posts and videos on social media. There he gathered many fans among young men and teenagers on TikTok, among other things, with tough talk about dominating women and earning a lot of money in a short time.
Tate first became publicly discredited while participating in the British version of the TV show Big Brother in 2016. After six days, he had to leave the house after a video emerged showing Tate beating a woman with a belt . According to Tate, it was a joke between friends.
The internet phenomenon also made many misogynistic, homophobic and racist statements. For example, he was banned from Twitter for saying that women themselves “bear some responsibility” in rape. He also said, among other things, that women who are no longer virgins are “used goods” and “second-hand,” and that the Bible prescribes that every man should have several wives. He also believes that depression and mental illness are ‘not real’, but inventions to ‘justify the own failures’ of people who are lazy and have to work harder ‘to make themselves happy’.
2. Why is he stuck in Romania?
At the end of December, Tate and his brother Tristan were arrested in the Romanian capital Bucharest. The suspicions against the two are not tender: they are accused of human trafficking, rape and forming an organized crime group with two Romanian partners who are also imprisoned.
The brothers allegedly make a lot of money by exploiting women “by forcing them to make pornographic material that can be viewed online for a fee,” the indictment said. All of this would have happened in a villa in Bucharest. Tate moved from England to Romania in 2017 because he wanted to live in a country where “corruption is open to everyone,” he said. “I find it insulting that a police officer in England stops me and refuses to take a bribe.”
Weapons, cash and expensive sports cars were seized during the arrest. The Tates made a fortune from their webcam sites, interests in casinos and the platform Hustlers University where Tate gave people “advice” for $50 a month to make easy and quick money.
3. What did Tate himself state?
He has repeatedly claimed that Romanian prosecutors have no evidence against him. Their case is said to be a political conspiracy designed to silence him. The Tates have been trying for some time now to await their trial on bail.
A Romanian court rejected that request two weeks ago for fears they could pressure witnesses or erase evidence, but the British brothers are not giving up and have appealed. That ruling is expected sometime today.
Meanwhile, as usual, it’s all but quiet around Tate. He is also heard from prison almost daily via messages on Twitter (5.4 million followers), which accepted him in mercy. The messages are written by others, who presumably get the texts through Tate’s lawyers. In addition, the necessary messages are spread on social media claiming that Tate would have been free again for a long time. But that is not correct: the Tates are still in custody.
4. How is this case progressing?
Justice in Romania will now have to provide conclusive evidence in order to ultimately reach a conviction. Under Romanian law, with the consent of a court, suspects can be held without trial for up to six months. That means that there will be more clarity within three months.
The DIICOT, a special Romanian unit that investigates organized crime, has previously said in a statement that six persons have been identified in the sex trafficking case as victims of “acts of physical violence and mental coercion.” They were seduced to come to the villa using the ‘lover boy’ method, but were then ‘intimidated, controlled and coerced into committing pornographic acts’.
Four of them would have already testified against the Tates, according to leaked court documents viewed last week by the British broadcaster BBC. It also showed that the threat of debt was used as ‘a form of psychological coercion’. It is expected that the Romanian authorities will have to provide more evidence in addition to these testimonies in order to reach a conviction. Especially now that the lawsuit is under a magnifying glass due to all the attention for Tate.
