The online influencer Andrew Tate and his brother were released from house arrest in Romania on Friday but must remain in the country while they await trial on charges of human trafficking, after an order from a court in Bucharest.
The Bucharest Court of Appeals said in a statement that Mr. Tate and his younger brother, Tristan Tate, must stay in Romania under probation for 60 days while awaiting trial. The Tate brothers and two Romanian women were indicted in Romania in June on charges of engaging in human trafficking across Romania, Britain and the United States, of rape and of forming an organized criminal group in 2021.
Andrew Tate, 36, a former kickboxer, is known for sharing misogynistic views to his millions of mostly young male followers on social media. A citizen of both the United States and Britain, he established Romania as his base around 2016. He and his brother were arrested in December, were held for three months in a jail in Bucharest, and had been under house arrest since the end of March.
Mr. Tate told reporters at his home outside Bucharest on Friday that he and his brother were innocent. “I have to give absolute faith to the Romanian judicial system for finally making the right decision and letting us free,” he said. “I’m sure at the end we’ll be absolutely exonerated.”
A statement from his spokeswoman said that, under the court order, he and his brother could travel within Bucharest, Romania’s capital, and the surrounding county, and potentially elsewhere if they obtained approval from the courts. They can associate with each other, but not with the other defendants, witnesses or alleged victims, the statement said.
Mr. Tate on Friday tweeted to his 7.5 million followers that the indictment was “based on nothing.”