Hungary’s government has decided to withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC), it said on Thursday, shortly after Israeli leader Binyamin Netanyahu, sought under an ICC arrest warrant, arrived in the country for a state visit.
Right-wing Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban invited his Israeli counterpart to Budapest in November, a day after the ICC issued its arrest warrant over allegations of war crimes in Gaza, where Israel launched its offensive following an attack by Hamas-led fighters on southern Israel.
Israel has rejected the accusations, which it says are politically motivated and fuelled by anti-Semitism. It says the ICC has lost all legitimacy by issuing the warrants against a democratically elected leader of a country exercising the right of self defence.
As a founding member of the ICC, Hungary is theoretically obliged to arrest and hand over anyone subject to a warrant from the court but Mr Orban made clear that Hungary would not respect the ruling, which he called “brazen, cynical and completely unacceptable”.
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“This is no longer an impartial court, a rule-of-law court, but rather a political court. This has become the clearest in light of its decisions on Israel,” Mr Orban said at a news conference with Mr Netanyahu where they did not take questions.
“You stand with us at the EU, you stand with us at the UN and you’ve just taken a bold and principled position on the ICC ... it’s important for all democracies to stand up to this corrupt organisation,” Mr Netanyahu told Mr Orban.
An ICC spokesperson had no immediate comment on the criticism from Mr Orban and Mr Netanyahu.
The court has previously said its decision to pursue warrants against Israeli officials was in line with its approach in all cases and that it is not for states to unilaterally determine the soundness of its legal decisions.
Hungary signed the ICC’s founding document in 1999 and ratified it in 2001, but the law has not been promulgated.
[ Air strikes kill 53 in Gaza as Israel steps up its offensiveOpens in new window ]
Gergely Gulyas, Mr Orban’s chief of staff, said in November that although Hungary ratified the Rome Statute of the ICC, it “was never made part of Hungarian law”, meaning that no measure of the court can be carried out within Hungary.
On Thursday Mr Gulyas told state news agency MTI the government would launch the withdrawal process later in the day.
Mr Orban had raised the prospect of Hungary’s exit from the ICC after US president Donald Trump imposed sanctions on the court’s prosecutor Karim Khan in February.
“It’s time for Hungary to review what we’re doing in an international organisation that is under US sanctions,” Mr Orban said on X in February.
The Bill on starting the year-long process of withdrawing from the ICC is likely to be approved by Hungary’s parliament, which is dominated by Mr Orban’s Fidesz party.
Mr Netanyahu has enjoyed strong support over the years from Mr Orban, an important ally who has been ready to block EU statements or actions critical of Israel in the past.
ICC judges said when they issued the warrant that there were reasonable grounds to believe Mr Netanyahu and his former minister, Yoav Gallant, were criminally responsible for acts including murder, persecution and starvation as a weapon of war as part of a “widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population of Gaza”.
The Israeli campaign has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, and devastated the Gaza Strip. The Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7th, 2023, killed 1,200 people and saw more than 250 taken hostage, according to Israel.
The ICC also issued an arrest warrant against a Hamas leader, Mohammed Deif, in November. His death was confirmed after the warrant was issued. − Reuters
