It’s a warm and sunny autumn day in Romania’s capital, Bucharest, and not much is happening outside the magnificent neo-Renaissance Palace of Justice in the center of the city. Only a television crew waits outside the building to catch a glimpse of the two famous and highly controversial men on trial.

The hearing focused on Andrew and Tristan Tate, two notorious misogynists and social media influencers with millions of followers. The charges against them include human trafficking and abuse of women.

But on October 31, as has happened several times before, the judge delayed setting a trial date following requests from lawyers representing the two men to stay the proceedings, including requests that questioned whether the evidence presented are admissible. The brothers, who are dual British-American citizens, have denied any wrongdoing.

Many perpetrators are never convicted

The Tate brothers, particularly Andrew Tate – once a kickboxer – rose to global fame on social media over a decade ago. They have millions of followers on TikTok and other platforms and have made headlines for voicing highly misogynistic views and calling for violence against women. They also spread racist, homophobic and far-right sentiments in their posts and videos.

After Andrew Tate was briefly arrested in the UK in 2015 for assault and alleged rape, he and his brother Tristan moved to Romania the following year. He may have done this on purpose. Romania has one of the worst results in the European Union in terms of abuse of women and human trafficking.

European Commission reports from 2023 shows that of the more than 7,000 women who fall victim to trafficking and abuse in the EU every year, more than 3,000 come from Romania. The judiciary in Romania is slow in processing these cases and it is not unusual for the perpetrators to postpone the trials and never be convicted.

The trial was repeatedly postponed

Andrew and Tristan were arrested for the first time in Romania at the end of 2022, being suspected of human trafficking and rape. They were investigated by the country’s Directorate of Organized Crime and Terrorism.

The Tate brothers are said to have lured women into their network using the boyfriend method, where men pretend to be caring boyfriends before forcing their victims into prostitution, as well as appearing in online sex channels and porn films.

The police confiscated luxury cars, as well as other valuables and cash from the Tate brothers at their property in Voluntari, north-east of Bucharest.

Since then, the Tate brothers’ case has turned into a legal odyssey. In March 2023, the two were released from custody and placed under house arrest, from which they were released in August 2023. A Bucharest court ruled in April 2024 that the pair should be tried criminally. The charges included forming a criminal organization, human trafficking in the case of 34 women, assault and rape. Since then, however, the trial has been repeatedly postponed.

The Romanian authorities are more lenient towards traffickers

The Tates were most recently arrested in late August. Andrew, now 37, was placed under house arrest, while Tristan, 36, was placed under court supervision. In early October, a court ruled that the luxury cars seized by the authorities will be returned because they are not registered in their names, but in the names of family members and friends.

As the Tate case shows, Romanian police and courts often seem to stop with abusers. Although the legal situation has improved in recent years, trafficking in women and violence against women continues in Romania. According to the investigative network Rise Project, anti-mafia prosecutors estimate that between 3,000 and 4,000 traffickers operate in Romania.

US Department of State Report on human trafficking in Romania in 2023 said legislative changes and long trial periods continued to hinder prosecutions and led to impunity for some officials complicit in traffic crimes. He also said that some judges are unaware of child trafficking and have shown bias against victims from socially disadvantaged groups.

The Tates attract little public controversy in Romania

In their videos, the Tates’ misogynistic statements aim to teach men how to attract women, make women dependent on them, and rape them. The brothers believe that men should take care of women and make the decisions because women are supposed to be lazy and incapable. However, Tates appears to have caused little public controversy in Romania.

In July, when the Tates were accused of human trafficking and rape, Andrew took to the stage at the Beach, Please! festival from Costinești to the Black Sea and was cheered by thousands of spectators.

The American rapper French Montana brought him on stage and shouted: “Romania loves you, my brother!” — to the tune of a well-known song by a famous Balkan pop star that celebrates the power of money to solve all of life’s problems.

This article was originally written in German.