Far-right influencer must remain within the European Union until trial begins
Far-right influencer Andrew Tate has been permitted to leave Romania — but not the European Union — as he awaits trial on charges of rape and human trafficking.
A court in the Romanian capital of Bucharest ruled Friday that Tate could leave the country, in spite of the influencer’s own claims to fellow streamer Adin Ross that he was “gonna be leaving Romania soon and probably never coming back” — a boast that resulted in Tate being re-arrested on separate U.K. charges in March.
In response to the Bucharest court’s decision, Tate tweeted Friday, “I AM FREE. FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 3 YEARS I CAN LEAVE ROMANIA. THE SHAM CASE IS FALLING APART.”
“We embrace and applaud the decision of the court today; I consider it a reflection of the exemplary behavior and assistance of my clients,” Eugen Vidineac, one of Tate’s lawyers, said in a statement (via The Associated Press).
In addition to the Romanian charges, Tate also faces a lawsuit filed by four British women who allege he sexually and physically assaulted them in 2014 and 2015. Tate and his brother Tristan also face extradition to the U.K. on separate charges of sexual abuse; a Romanian court agreed to extradite the Tate brothers to the U.K. following the conclusion of the Romanian trial.
Rolling Stone has reported extensively on Tate’s various controversies and how he created a character and built his misogynistic, extremely online empire. Recently, we obtained leaked text messages from the War Room — Tate’s all-male network of associates — that appeared to show Tate explaining how he recruited women to work for him or how he manipulated one of his girlfriends into doing sex work for him. (At the time, a spokesperson for the Tates cast doubt on the source and authenticity of the text messages.) The Tates were initially arrested in December 2022.