Romanian court denies Andrew Tate bail over charges of rape and human trafficking

Andrew Tate, the accused human-trafficking rapist, has been denied bail by a Romanian judge in a morning hearing on Tuesday.

The Bucharest Tribunal deemed Tate’s request to have police custody replaced with a restricted release on bail “inadmissible in principle.”

Tate, a divisive influencer, has been held in a cockroach-infested Bucharest jail since the end of last year, along with his three co-accused, including his brother, Tristan.

However, they have not been formally charged. This marks the third appeal that Tate has lost after prosecutors twice succeeded in getting his detention extended for a total of 60 days.

Romanian law allows him to be held for 180 days without charge.

Tate’s defense team expressed disappointment in the outcome and vowed to appeal.

Meanwhile, the court is set to rule on a similar appeal by his brother, Tristan Tate, who has been held alongside Andrew and is accused of helping him run an organized crime gang that trafficked and exploited women.

Tate, who has lived in Romania since 2017, has repeatedly claimed that Romanian prosecutors have no evidence against him and alleged that their case is a political conspiracy designed to silence him.

He has also blamed his legal woes on “the matrix.” Tate’s lawyers claim that his viral videos, in which he gloated about violence to enslaved women tricked into working for his webcam businesses, are just him playing a fictitious, buzz-worthy character online.

However, Romania’s anti-organized crime agency, DIICOT, claims that it reflected the real ring he ran where women were seduced and tricked into working for him, with some accusing him of rape.

DIICOT stated after the December arrests that it had identified six victims who were allegedly subjected to “acts of physical violence and mental coercion” and sexual exploitation.

The agency said victims were lured with pretenses of love and later intimidated, placed under surveillance, and subjected to other control tactics while being coerced into engaging in pornographic acts for the financial gain of the crime gang.

While in detention, Tate has attempted to recruit lawmakers to help him and intimidated some of his accusers, according to wiretaps of his phone calls submitted to the court by prosecutors.

Tate, now a hairy ex-kickboxer, appeared to use his latest blow as a philosophy lesson for his 5.3 million followers on Twitter, quoting Bukhari, “If Allah intends good for someone, then He afflicts him with trials.”