Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan are currently being held in the Central Prison of the Capital Police in Bucharest, Romania, due to an arrest that took place on Dec 29, 2022, for alleged rape, human trafficking, and organized crime investigations.
The prosecutor has requested to keep Andrew and Tristan Tate for a 30-day detention period. The defense was unsuccessful in appealing the detention on January 10, with the brothers ordered to remain in custody until January 30.
Once the next hearing comes, it is unclear whether the Tate brothers have a good chance at being released, with the judge previously citing them being a flight risk
In an interview with Romanian publication Gandul, the lawyer for the Tate brothers Eugen Vindineac, broke his silence, claiming that the police have no evidence in this case.
Here is a breakdown of some of the claims made in the interview.
The Tate brothers and lawyers were purposely prevented from studying the case files
Eugen has claimed that on the evening of December 29, 2022, the night that Andrew and Tristan Tate were arrested, their status with the police changed from witnesses to suspects to defendants.
Because they had previously been marked as witnesses since the original April 2022 arrest, both the Tates and their lawyer were unable to study the criminal investigation file, with the lawyer only having access to the file for 45 minutes before the brothers appeared in court.
If true, this does indicate that the prosecution and DIICOT could have purposely prevented Eugen from being able to mount a plausible defense to get them off being detained for 30 days.
Since this interview, we have learned that the Tates have had their appeal denied and will spend at least the remainder of the 30 days in jail.
There is no evidence to back up the rape charges
It is claimed that there is no evidence to support the rape charge given to the Tate brothers, with the exception of a victim’s statement. If the allegation is true, it will ultimately come down to a “he said, she said” case, with no evidence to support the claim.
Unfortunately, rape is one of the hardest convictions to get, with less than 1% ending in a conviction. It is quite often very difficult to secure any concrete evidence to prove that the crime had taken place, especially if it happened in the past.
The women alleged to be victims have never filed complaints against the Tate brothers
One key piece of evidence to support that the police are clutching at straws is that none of the six alleged victims have filed complaints against the Tate brothers, according to their lawyer.
In fact, two of the six victims have publicly stated on national TV that the Tates were “like family” to them. They stated that the allegations are “untrue” and “unfair” and that the case is “built on lies.”
There is no evidence to support human trafficking claims
The main charge filed against the Tate brothers and their associates is that they created a human trafficking ring, getting women from other countries to come to Romania before entrapping them and forcing them to become webcam models.
Eugen claims that there is no evidence to support these claims and that they are entirely fabricated by the Romanian police.
“In my view, there is no evidence, and I am talking about evidence leading, by itself or directly, to the formation of an opinion of reasonable suspicion regarding the commission of offences provided for and punishable by criminal law.
In this case, we are talking about human trafficking and organized crime. The documents to which we have so far had access do not accurately describe matters relating to the constituent elements of the offence of organized criminal group.
They do not accurately describe the hierarchy of the group, they do not describe the functions of each person who was part of this alleged criminal group.
And also, with regard to trafficking in human beings, as the offence is described, it does not comply with the legal requirements concerning the way in which the offence of trafficking in human beings is committed.”
Andrew Tate is playing a character on social media, and his statements online cannot be used as evidence
When it comes to social media, it can be incredibly difficult to determine what is real and what is either exaggerated or outright fake.
Much of the content we view online is often not an accurate reflection of reality, whether it is Photoshopped pictures or scripted videos that are portrayed as being real.
The lawyer for the Tate brothers argues that the controversial statements made by both Andrew and Tristan Tate on social media cannot be used as evidence as they are playing a character and exaggerating topics and events.
As we’ve all seen, much of the public perception of the Tate brothers have come from short form, often out of context, clips from podcasts and other videos.
In these podcast interviews or videos released by the Tate brothers, they both often play a more macho character. In contrast, when the cameras are off, many of the hosts and people surrounding them have said they act like completely different people.
Eugen argues that the brothers can’t be prosecuted based on what they say on social media, as it isn’t always an accurate reflection of the truth.
“Mr. Andrew Tate claims that his discussion of Romania being corrupt is taken absolutely out of context from a discussion, an interview lasting over two hours, in which he talked about the fact that in other countries there is a high degree of corruption, which is likely to spark international wars and that in Romania things are much better.
That in Romania, he has not seen such corruption, that in Romania, he feels safe, and I really understood this from him, and we are going to prove it. Of course, the team that is in charge of obtaining the data on social media will provide us with all the necessary information in due time for the defense.”
You can check out the full 37-minute interview with full English subtitles below.
