The Hungarian National Assembly (parliament) voted to withdraw the country from the International Criminal Court (ICC) by 134 votes to 37, with seven abstentions. Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó will notify the UN Secretary-General of the decision.
This is reported by the Hungarian media outlet Index.
The Hungarian government decided to withdraw from the International Criminal Court at its first meeting in April, and Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semyon submitted a corresponding bill to parliament. The country now denounces the Rome Statute in the country after 23 years of membership in ICC.
The Hungarian government claimed that the court had deviated from its original mission and had become a political organization. They cited as an example the arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which was issued because Netanyahu is suspected of genocide in Gaza.
“Now that the National Assembly has voted for it, my task is to inform the UN Secretary-General about this step […]. Of course, we have already prepared a list, and as soon as the National Assembly’s decision enters into force, is signed by the president and is made public, I will immediately send a letter to the UN Secretary-General,” Szijjártó said.
What preceded
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.
Talks about leaving the ICC have been ongoing in Budapest since Donald Trump was inaugurated as US president. Since then, the government has been waiting for Trump to take action on the court. And when Trump said 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”.
When the Israeli prime minister visited Hungary in April, Budapest did not execute an arrest warrant for him.
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