Andrew Tate’s extradition to Britain on rape and human trafficking allegations faces a delay after a court in Romania ruled he would face trial there on similar charges.
The social media personality was told by a court in Bucharest on Friday that evidence in the prosecution’s case file met the legal criteria for a trial.
The court’s preliminary chamber said in a statement: “The court notes the legality of evidence management by … prosecutors, and rules that the case can go to trial.” No date was set for the start of the trial.
Tate, 37, has repeatedly claimed on social media that Romanian prosecutors have no evidence against him and that there is a political conspiracy to silence him. His spokesman said he would appeal.
The former kickboxer, who has been described as “the king of toxic masculinity”, found fame in 2016 as a contestant on Channel 5’s Big Brother. He has more than nine million followers on Twitter/X and promotes get-rich-quick schemes via his online Hustlers University. Tate, from Luton, Bedfordshire, his brother Tristan, 35, and two alleged female accomplices were arrested in Bucharest in December 2022 in connection with their online pornography business.
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Romanian prosecutors claim the Tate brothers recruited their victims by seducing them and falsely claiming to want a relationship or marriage. After their arrests, the brothers were held in police custody in April last year. They were then under house arrest until August.
The Tates are the highest profile suspects facing trial for human trafficking in Romania and their case will be a test for the country’s anti-organised crime prosecuting unit. Trafficking of adults carries a prison sentence of up to ten years, as does rape. Last month the Tates appeared in court in Bucharest on European arrest warrants obtained by Bedfordshire police. The court approved the extradition request but postponed doing so until Romanian trial proceedings were concluded.
A Bedfordshire police spokeswoman said the warrants were “part of an ongoing investigation into allegations of rape and human trafficking”. Tate’s lawyers claimed the UK arrest warrant relates to “unfounded” allegations dating from 2012-2015 which have already been “rejected” by British prosecutors.
A representative for the Tates said: “This bewildering revival of decade-old accusations has left the Tate brothers dismayed and deeply troubled.”
Tate has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and has claimed he is a victim of a wide-ranging conspiracy, which he has likened to the control of humans in the Keanu Reeves film The Matrix.
