Hungary has informed that it is beginning the procedure to withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC).
This is reported by the Hungarian media outlet Index.
The head of the Hungarian Prime Ministerʼs Office Gergely Gulyás said that the government will officially begin suspending its participation in the ICC on Thursday, April 3.
According to him, the activities of the International Criminal Court have “deviated from its original purpose” and because it has “become a political court”, Hungary does not wish to be a member in the future.
First, government officials must submit a motion for recall to the National Assembly. If the majority supports it, the Cabinet will officially initiate the recall. The process can take up to a year.
Talks about leaving the ICC were underway in Budapest right after 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”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has now arrived in Hungary, despite an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity and war crimes in the Gaza Strip. Budapest has no intention of executing the warrant and arresting Netanyahu.
Hungary signed and ratified the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. That is, Hungary formally approved the statute but did not change the legislation to implement it.
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