Andrew Tate has posted a video saying he has “absolute clarity of thought” after he was moved from police custody to house arrest.
The social media influencer was released into house arrest on Friday after a Romanian court overturned a request by prosecutors for him to be detained until late April.
Mr Tate (36) a British-US citizen who has 5.6 million Twitter followers, was initially detained in December in Bucharest along with his brother, Tristan, and two Romanian women, Naghel Georgiana Manuela and Radu Alexandra Luana, as prosecutors investigate them for suspected human trafficking, rape and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women.
They have denied all accusations.
All four had won an appeal on Friday and would remain under house arrest until April 29th, said Ramona Bolla, a spokeswoman for Romania’s anti-organised crime agency, Diicot. None of the four have yet been formally indicted.
Addressing the people gathered outside the court, Andrew Tate said: “I’ve been in one room since last year, so it’s a little bit emotional.”
He added: “I truly believe that justice will be served in the end. There is zero per cent chance of me being found guilty of something I have not done. I maintain my absolute innocence.”
After his release, Mr Tate posted a video of himself pacing a room and smoking a cigar. He says: “Since last year I’ve been in 24-hour lockdown. No yard time.
“Pacing a 3-metre cell with zero electronics or outside contact. Absolute clarity of mind. Real thoughts. Real plans. Vivid pain. One hour home and I can’t stand my phone.
“Some habits die hard. We must defeat Shaytan [Satan].”
Speaking to reporters outside the court on Friday, Mr Tate’s lawyer, Eugen Vidineac, said: “We see the court decision as legal, thorough and correct.”
He added that the brothers were forbidden from contacting witnesses and from leaving the house without approval from authorities. “We do not yet have the court’s motivation. We do not know whether there are other interdictions.”
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Earlier this week, the same court of appeal denied the Tate brothers’ request to be released on bail.
In previous rulings that extended their stay in police custody, judges said the Tate brothers posed a flight risk and that their release could jeopardise the investigation.
“The [court] decision is final. The investigation continues,” said Ms Bolla.
Asked whether Friday’s ruling would speed up the investigation, Ms Bolla said prosecutors had until the end of June to send the suspects to trial.
Under Romanian legislation, prosecutors have filed charges against the four suspects, although the case is still under investigation and has not gone to trial.
Prosecutors have said the Tates recruited their alleged victims by seducing them and falsely claiming to want a relationship or marriage. The victims were then coerced to produce pornographic content for social media sites that generated the brothers a large financial gain.
Andrew Tate, a former professional kickboxer 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 suspended from Twitter in 2017 but allowed back in November 2022. – Guardian