Big day for brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate. The judges at the Bucharest Court decide whether to extend the measure of preventive detention in the case of the Brits or whether to release them. The meeting is secret, and the measure can be contested at the Bucharest Court of Appeal.
UPDATE 2:30 PM: The preventive arrest measure, extended by 30 days
The judges of the Bucharest Court decided to extend the preventive measure by another 30 days in the case of brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate.
The same decision was made in the case of the former policewoman and the other woman arrested in the millionaires’ case.
The court ordered their detention between January 20 and February 27.
The measure can be challenged at the Bucharest Court of Appeal, but it is enforceable, so the brothers remain behind bars.
UPDATE 1:00 PM: The judges remained in judgment
„ Today we had the Prosecutor’s Office’s request for the extension of the measure of preventive arrest, a request that the defense considers to be obviously unjustified and totally exaggerated, especially in the conditions where we continue to maintain that the evidentiary material is completely lacking in this case, and what was disseminated in the press is nothing more than a completely and totally exaggerated and disproportionate interpretation of some harmless discussions in the private environment of the respective persons, which were given a completely and totally unjustified, therefore totally exaggerated, interpretation.
We continue to maintain that practically at this moment the Tate brothers are being arrested for a crime of opinion, for what they said, at some point, in the online environment and not for what they actually did in their private lives”, said Constantin Ioan Gliga, one of the defense lawyers.
„ We must somehow point out that, after going through all the documents and all the material of the criminal investigation, our position is firm that there is no evidence to incriminate the clients we represent”, added lawyer Eugen Vidineac.
The lawyer of the Tate brothers also explained the reason why the request to extend the pretrial detention was judged even though the first term did not expire until January 29.
„ That’s how it happens and it’s right. It should be judged at least five days before the expiration of the mandate because today’s solution can be appealed against so that the judges can have time to justify their solutions, to send the file to the higher court in a possible appeal, of course it is always judged a few days before. Tuesday is a day off (January 24 – editor’s note) and maybe even Monday, all the more the deadlines had to be respected so that the mandate does not expire”, said lawyer Eugen Vidineac.
Andrew Tate’s defense attorney also spoke about the visit of the famous American vlogger Adin Ross, who announced that he was coming to Romania to talk with the British millionaire imprisoned in Bucharest.
„I received this information yesterday. I visited Andrew yesterday evening, but I did not ask him, and from my point of view, he does not have the opportunity to visit Andrew because they are not related, so the prosecutor did not admit a request”, clarified Vidineac.
INITIAL NEWS
The two British millionaires have already been brought to the headquarters of the Bucharest Court by a police van.
They will end up in front of a panel of judges from the Bucharest Court which will determine whether to extend the measure of preventive detention.
Also on Friday, Andrew and Tristan Tate were visited in custody by the US consul general, John Gimbel, after the British millionaires asked for assistance from the United States of America (USA), not just Britain. Both brothers have dual citizenship – American-British.
Andrew and Tristan Tate have been in custody since December 29, after the searches conducted by the DIICOT prosecutors at their Pipera villa and video chat studio. Together with them, Georgiana Naghel and former policewoman Luana Alexandra Radu were arrested.
The charges are of establishing an organized criminal group, trafficking in human beings and rape, and the prosecutors brought sufficient grounds in court for the judges of the Bucharest Tribunal to decide to arrest the Tate brothers and the two Romanian women for 30 days, and for the Bucharest Court of Appeal to maintain the preventive measure.