A court in Romania's capital on Tuesday ruled to extend by another 30 days the house arrest of Andrew Tate, the divisive social media influencer who is charged with rape, human trafficking and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women.
It’s actually 180 days. In this particular case it wasn’t about the limit. Romanian law has another provision: if you are not considered a “threat to society”, you can be investigated without being jailed. Normally, that means you walk free until your trial, with some restrictions on leaving the city or country, depending on your charge. However, if you are considered a flight risk while also not being deemed a “threat to society”, you will usually await trial under house arrest. No need to be rich or famous, just have a half-decent lawyer or a lenient prosecutor who doesn’t even ask for jail time to begin with.
Human trafficking is a very serious charge. By default, anyone accused of that would fall under the “threat to society” rule. If he’s at home now, his lawyers must have successfully proven that he would keep his head down, or prosecutors simply stopped asking for jail time. Sometimes they do that if they believe it would increase the chances for suspects to cooperate with the investigation. Neither are uncommon, especially for someone who hasn’t been convicted before.
It’s actually 180 days. In this particular case it wasn’t about the limit. Romanian law has another provision: if you are not considered a “threat to society”, you can be investigated without being jailed. Normally, that means you walk free until your trial, with some restrictions on leaving the city or country, depending on your charge. However, if you are considered a flight risk while also not being deemed a “threat to society”, you will usually await trial under house arrest. No need to be rich or famous, just have a half-decent lawyer or a lenient prosecutor who doesn’t even ask for jail time to begin with.
Thanks for the clarification! Do you happen to know the legal basis for the first few months of his non-house arrest?
Human trafficking is a very serious charge. By default, anyone accused of that would fall under the “threat to society” rule. If he’s at home now, his lawyers must have successfully proven that he would keep his head down, or prosecutors simply stopped asking for jail time. Sometimes they do that if they believe it would increase the chances for suspects to cooperate with the investigation. Neither are uncommon, especially for someone who hasn’t been convicted before.