BUCHAREST (Reuters) – Witnesses and alleged victims of controversial internet personality Andrew Tate are being harassed and intimidated in an effort to silence them, their lawyers said on Thursday.
The accusations were denied by a Tate spokesperson.
Tate was indicted in June along with his brother Tristan and two Romanian female suspects for human trafficking, rape and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women, allegations they have denied.
Under Romanian law, the case is now with the Bucharest court’s preliminary chamber, where a judge has until November to inspect the files to ensure legality. The trial will not start until that process is completed.
U.S. and British legal representatives of alleged victims held a press conference in Bucharest on Thursday.
“These women are very afraid, they’re terrified, they have been threatened, they’ve had people come to their place of work,” Jillian Roth of law firm Laffey, Bucci & Kent told reporters.
Roth, together with the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE), is defending the two key witnesses of the Romanian prosecution in a civil lawsuit Tate filed against them for defamation in the United States.
“That lawsuit was filed only with the intent to intimidate, harass and to retaliate against the women who came forward to speak out against their abuse,” Roth said.
Tate’s head of communications, Mateea Petrescu, rejected the accusations.
“Andrew Tate has the legal right to use and benefit from the legal system in the United States, where he is a citizen, the United Kingdom, where he is a citizen, or anywhere else in the world,” she said.
In Britain, four women are planning a civil lawsuit against Tate alleging he raped them between 2013 and 2016. British authorities did not raise charges against Tate at the time.
Matthew Jury, one of their lawyers, said they had been subjected to a campaign of threats, intimidation and harassment.
The Tate brothers, who have dual U.S. and British citizenship, were first held in police custody in Romania since Dec. 29 pending an investigation into abuse against seven women, whom prosecutors say were lured through false claims of relationships.
They were then placed under house arrest in April and since August have been under judicial control, a lighter restrictive measure.
Tate, a self-described misogynist, has gained millions of fans by promoting an ultra-masculine lifestyle that critics say denigrates women.
(Reporting by Luiza Ilie and Alan Charlish; Editing by Alex Richardson)
