Andrew Tate will remain in prison for another month

Andrew Tate’s battle with Romanian authorities is now entering its fifth round – he just lost the fourth (again). A Romanian court ruled last Thursday that the former kickboxing world champion and his alleged accomplices must remain detained until at least the end of April.

Andrew Tate, his brother Tristan and two female suspects have been in custody since late December. They are charged with human trafficking and organized crime, among other things. The pre-trial detention has now been extended by a month for the fourth time. And that may not be the end of the story, as Romanian law allows pre-trial detention of up to six months without formal charges.

The Tates legal team is speechless: the extension of the detention had “irreparably damaged” the image of the brothers. It will take “years for their reputation to recover,” spokeswoman Mateea Petrescu said, according to the BBC. According to Petrescu, on Wednesday’s summons, the court was unable to provide new evidence that the Chauvi Bros were guilty.

So far, the court has justified itself with the fact that the Tates could pressure the alleged victims if they were released. And not without reason: as the BBC writes, one of Tate’s lawyers has contacted an alleged victim and threatened to sue him for about $300 million for damage to his reputation if the woman does not retract her accusations.

Silvia Tabusca, legal expert at the Romanian-American University, explains: “Such cases in Romania are mostly based on the testimonies of the victims. But in this case, prosecutors are relying on other evidence, such as tapped phone calls and information from computer programs.”

It has been found that after two to three years the victims are no longer willing to cooperate with the judicial authorities. Then the defense could easily change the charge of human trafficking to assault. Pimping is based on the consent of the victim and is therefore punished much more leniently.

But why does it take so long for the alleged perpetrators to be brought to justice? Tabascu sees the problem in financing. At the moment, more than 800 human trafficking cases are being handled by the competent authorities, mostly international and very complex. “We have 7 prosecutors and 48 police officers for these 800 cases.”

In three months, Andrew and Tristan Tate must be released or brought to justice – all eyes are on the Romanian authorities.

Meanwhile, mixed-up messages continue to appear on the professional ginger’s Twitter account:

(cpf)