An extradition request for Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan from British authorities has been approved by a court in Romania, meaning the Tate brothers could face criminal proceedings in the UK.
The Tate brothers are currently under house arrest in Voluntari, outside Bucharest in Romania, but UK police detained the pair on Monday.
The extradition of the Tate brothers is in relation to alleged sexual offences that occurred in 2012-2015 and will likely happen after criminal proceedings wrap up Romania, the Bucharest Court of Appeal ruled on Tuesday.
Andrew and Tristan Tate are awaiting a criminal trial in Romania for allegations of rape, human trafficking and the sexual exploitation of women through an organised criminal gang.
Eugen Vidineac, the Tate brothers’ lawyer, told reporters outside of court he is satisfied with the Bucharest Court of Appeal’s decision to “postpone the extradition of Andrew and Tristan Tate” until after the Romanian criminal trial is complete.
“This ruling provides an opportunity for the brothers to participate fully in their defence and for the legal process to proceed in a transparent manner,” Vidineac told reporters on Tuesday.
The Court also allowed the Tate brothers to be released from British custody, following the extradition orders. Upon their release from temporary custody, Andrew Tate said he and his brother Tristan were “very innocent men”.
He also said in a video to his 8.9 million followers on X that the UK extradition is a “very obvious attack from The Matrix”, a term he uses to describe a political conspiracy he believes is silencing men.
‘This could have been stopped.’
Last month, four women in the UK created a crowdfunding page to raise money for legal fees to “bring Andrew Tate to Justice in the UK”.
The women describe themselves as “survivors of Andrew Tate’s violence and misogynistic ideology” and are hoping to bring a civil trial against him.
According to their crowdfunding campaign website, the women filed reports to British authorities of rape and physical abuse in 2014 and 2015. However, the women said police did not hand the case over to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) until 2019, when it was decided the CPS would not proceed with the matter.
“This potentially negligent conduct resulted in Andrew Tate being free to move to Romania and commit more alleged crimes against women for which he is now awaiting trial,” the women wrote.
“This could have been stopped.”
Now, their push for a civil case is in hopes for the reopening of a criminal investigation and a criminal trial against Andrew Tate.
“It’s our one remaining route to hold him accountable and stop anyone else suffering what we have suffered,” they wrote.
So far, the women have crowdfunded £34,906 ($67,604 AUD), with hopes to reach £50,000 ($96,837 AUD) to fund the civil trial.
Matthew Jury, a solicitor from McCue Jury & Partners, announced he would be taking on the case in September last year.
“[Andrew Tate has had] this insidious influence on vulnerable young men and boys, and the knock-on impact their behaviour has on women,” he said at the time.
Last year, the BBC published an investigation into Andrew Tate’s “War Room”, a chat room that had 434 members heeding the advice from the group’s leader, operating under the alia “Iggy Semmelweiss”.
The BBC identified 45 possible victims between March 2019 and April 2020 who were allegedly isolated from their social lives and manipulated through sex because of the War Room. Members of the chat room were encouraged to acquire “sole authority” over women by doing so.