Free Europe: Hungary to withdraw from the International Criminal Court

Hungary is about to announce its withdrawal from the International Criminal Court (ICC).

According to the Hungarian edition of Free Europe, this was stated by Justice Minister Bence Tuzon at a meeting of ambassadors held last week at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

If Hungary withdraws from the International Criminal Court, the government must first submit a motion to withdraw to the National Assembly. If the majority supports it, the Cabinet will officially initiate the withdrawal. The process could take up to a year.

Talks about leaving the ICC have been ongoing in Budapest since Donald Trump was inaugurated as the US president. Since then, the government has been waiting for Trump to take action on the court. And when he announced that he would impose sanctions on the Hague court over the arrest warrant for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “the Hungarian government took it as a green light”.

Today, April 2, the Israeli Prime Minister is scheduled to arrive in Hungary, despite an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity and war crimes in the Gaza Strip.

Hungary has signed and ratified the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. That is, Hungary has formally approved the statute, but has not changed the legislation to implement it. Therefore, Budapest is not going to execute the arrest warrant for Netanyahu.

What preceded

The US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on February 6 imposing sanctions on ICC, accusing it of “inappropriate actions” against the United States, Israel and other US allies. Washington later expanded the sanctions to include prosecutor Karim Khan, who issued the arrest warrant for Putin.

The International Criminal Court is the only court in the world that has the right and jurisdiction to prosecute heads of state for the most serious crimes.

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