Hungary is initiating the withdrawal process from the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC). This was announced by the head of Prime Minister’s Office in the government, Gergely Gulyás.
Gergely Gulyás said 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.
The announcement by Hungarian officials to pull out of the ICC came after a visit to the country by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has an international arrest warrant hanging over his head.
Reuters points out that Netanyahu was invited by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to the latter’s nation one day after the ICC had issued the warrant of arrest against the Israeli prime minister. Then Netanyahu was promised he would not be arrested and Hungarian Prime Minister Orban termed as ‘brazen, cynical and completely unacceptable’ the ICC’s action.
Hungary signed the Rome Statute, the global treaty that founded the ICC, in 1999 and ratified it two years later.
Reuters estimates Hungary’s withdrawal process from the ICC at one year.
