Andrew Tate’s trial on human trafficking charges can proceed, a Romanian court has ruled, 10 months after he was first indicted.
The self-professed “misogynist influencer” was indicted in June along with his brother, Tristan, and two Romanian female suspects for human trafficking, rape and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women, allegations they have all denied.
Under Romanian law, the case then sat with the Bucharest court’s preliminary chamber, which needed to inspect the case files and evidence to ensure legality. On Friday the court said the process had been completed and the criminal trial could start.
“The court notes the legality of evidence management by … prosecutors, and rules that the case can go to trial,” the court said, adding the ruling could be challenged on appeal. No date has been set for the trial.
Eugen Vidineac, the Tate brothers’ lead defence lawyer, said he had submitted an appeal against the decision. “The ruling issued by the preliminary chamber judge lacks legal basis and reasoning,” Vidineac said in a statement. “We have filed a strong appeal as we believe the ruling to be unlawful.”
In a protracted legal case, a Romanian court approved a request from Britain in March to extradite the brothers on allegations of sexual aggression dating back to 2012-15 but only after the completion of Romanian trial proceedings. Trafficking of adults and rape carries a prison sentence of up to 10 years.
The brothers, who are dual UK-US nationals, were held in police custody during the criminal investigation from December 2022 until April 2023 to prevent them from absconding from Romania or tampering with evidence.
They were then under house arrest until August when courts placed them under judicial control. In January, a Romanian court rejected an appeal by Andrew Tate to ease the judicial control measures.
Tate, a kickboxer who has 9.1 million followers on 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 social media platforms for expressing misogynistic views and for hate speech.