Andrew Tate released from detention and moved to house arrest in Romania

Andrew Tate, the divisive social media influencer who has spent three months in a Romanian jail on suspicion of organised crime and human trafficking, has won an appeal along with his brother to be moved from detention to house arrest.

The Bucharest court of appeal ruled in favour of their appeal, which challenged a judge’s decision last week to extend his arrest a fourth time for 30 days.

Tate, 36, a British-US citizen who has 5.4 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. They have denied all the accusations.

All four won an appeal on Friday and will remain under house arrest until 29 April, Ramona Bolla, a spokesperson for Romania’s anti-organised crime agency, DIICOT, said. None of the four have yet been formally indicted.

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 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.

He has repeatedly claimed Romanian prosecutors have no evidence and alleged their case is a political conspiracy designed to silence him.

DIICOT said in a statement after the December arrests that it had identified six victims in the human trafficking case who were allegedly subjected to “acts of physical violence and mental coercion” and sexually exploited by members of the alleged crime group.

The agency said victims were lured with pretences of love and later intimidated, placed under surveillance and subjected to other control tactics while being coerced into engaging in pornographic acts for the financial gain of the 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.

Associated Press has contributed to this report