Internet celebrity Andrew Tate leaves Romania

Internet celebrity Andrew Tate leaves Romania

The former kickboxer and his brother boarded a private flight for the US earlier today.

Andrew Tate EPA 270225
Andrew Tate is under criminal investigation in Romania on accusations of several crimes. (EPA Images pic)
BUCHAREST:
Internet personality Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan left Romania on a private flight for the US early today, news website G4media.ro said citing airport sources.

The Tate brothers are under criminal investigation in Romania on accusations of forming an organised criminal group, human trafficking, trafficking of minors, sexual intercourse with a minor and money laundering.

They have denied all wrongdoing.

The Financial Times reported last week, citing sources, that members of US President Donald Trump’s administration had pressured Romanian authorities to lift travel restrictions on the Tates, former kickboxers with dual US and British citizenship.

Tate’s lawyer and communication team did not immediately comment on the report the Tates had left the country.

Romania’s foreign minister Emil Hurezeanu said the Tates were mentioned during his brief hallway meeting with Trump’s special envoy Richard Grenell at the Munich Security Conference earlier this month.

Pending the criminal investigation, the Tates are under judicial control, a light preventative measure under which they are required to check in with the police regularly.

Until this week, they were also banned from leaving Romania, a measure prosecutors said they lifted.

“The request to change the obligation of not leaving Romania was approved,” prosecutors said in a statement today.

“All the other obligations have been maintained, including the requirement to check in with judicial authorities every time they are called.”

A first criminal case against Tate and his brother failed in December when a Bucharest court decided not to start the trial and sent the files back to prosecutors citing flaws in the indictment.

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