Controversial social media influencer Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan have won an appeal to be moved from detention to house arrest.
The Bucharest Court of Appeal ruled in favour of their plea, which challenged a judge’s decision last week to extend his arrest a fourth time for 30 days.
Two of the brothers’ associates, Georgiana Naghel and Luana Radu, are also being released.
All four have been ordered to stay in their homes unless they get judicial permission to leave. Andrew Tate, 36, or ‘Top G’ as he’s known among his 5.5m Twitter followers, has been imprisoned in Romania alongside his brother since December.
The pair are being investigated for allegations of rape, people trafficking and forming an organised crime group. Both have stringently denied wrongdoing, with Tate often referring to ‘The Matrix’ and theories of conspiracy against him.
Speaking on their release from custody, Tate’s communications director, Mateea Petrescu, told Sky News: “They are not a flight risk and they are not a danger to public safety, therefore [the authorities] have decided to release them under house arrest.
“[It’s] just a small step – they are still under investigation.
“They are absolutely ecstatic. They kept their spirits [in jail], they are really thrilled and looking forward to being at home – they have kept their optimism throughout.”
The former kickboxing world champion and self-proclaimed misogynist, who has lived in Romania since 2017, is banned from having an account on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube for violating rules on “dangerous individuals” and breaching hate speech rules.
He was also suspended on Twitter, but later had his account reinstated after Elon Musk took over the platform in November of last year.
The Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) said in December it had identified in the human trafficking case. It alleged they had been subjected to “acts of physical violence and mental coercion” and sexually exploited by members of the alleged crime group.
In January, Romanian authorities said they had seized goods and money worth almost £3.25m from the influencer’s compound including a fleet of luxury cars.
