Andrew Tate, who faces rape, trafficking charges in Romania, leaves for US

Influencer brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate have left Romania for the U.S. after a journey ban on them was lifted, an official mentioned Thursday.

The brothers are charged with human trafficking and forming a felony gang to sexually exploit girls.

It isn’t clear beneath what circumstances the Tates — who’re eager supporters of President Donald Trump and boast hundreds of thousands of on-line followers — have been allowed to depart Romania.

An official on the Ministry of Inside Affairs, who spoke on situation of anonymity as a result of they weren’t approved to debate the case, mentioned the choice was on the discretion of prosecutors.

Andrew Tate, 38, and Tristan Tate, 36 — who’re twin U.S.-British residents — have been arrested close to Romania’s capital in late 2022 together with two Romanian girls. Romanian prosecutors formally indicted all 4 final yr. In April, the Bucharest Tribunal dominated that a trial could start however didn’t set a date. All 4 deny all the allegations.

The brothers’ departure got here after Romania’s International Minister Emil Hurezeanu mentioned this month {that a} U.S. official beneath the present Trump administration had expressed curiosity within the brothers’ authorized case in Romania on the Munich Safety Convention. The minister insisted it didn’t quantity to stress.

In December a court docket in Bucharest dominated that the case towards the Tates and the 2 Romanian girls couldn’t go to trial due to a number of legal and procedural irregularities on the part of the prosecutors.

That call by the Bucharest Court docket of Attraction was an enormous setback for Romania’s anti-organized crime company, DIICOT, but it surely didn’t imply the defendants might stroll free. The case has not been closed, and there’s additionally a separate authorized case towards the brothers in Romania.