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Hungary has confirmed it will begin the process of withdrawing from the International Criminal Court (ICC), hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is facing an ICC arrest warrant, arrived for an official visit, foreign media reported.
Gergely Gulyás, chief of staff to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, announced the decision on Thursday morning, saying the government would initiate the withdrawal procedure in accordance with Hungary’s constitutional and international legal frameworks. The withdrawal process will likely take up to a year, as it requires approval from Hungary’s parliament, which is controlled by Orbán’s Fidesz party, the Guardian reported.
The announcement comes after Netanyahu, who has been under an international arrest warrant since November 2023 for alleged war crimes in Gaza, landed in Budapest early on Thursday. He was greeted at the airport by Hungary’s defence minister.
Netanyahu’s visit comes in the wake of the ICC’s decision to issue an arrest warrant against him, accusing him and his former defence chief of crimes including murder, persecution, and starvation as weapons of war. The ICC issued the warrant after the October 2023 Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, which the Israeli government claims was a legitimate exercise of self-defence.
Netanyahu and his government have criticised the ICC, calling the warrant politically motivated and fuelled by antisemitism. They have also argued that the court had lost its legitimacy by “targetting a democratically elected leader of a country exercising the right to defend itself”.
According to the report, Hungary, which signed the ICC’s founding statute in 1999 and ratified it in 2001, would traditionally be required to detain and extradite anyone subject to an ICC arrest warrant. However, the country has long maintained that ICC rulings are not enforceable within its borders, with Gulyás reportedly saying the law was never fully incorporated into Hungarian domestic law, meaning the ICC’s mandate has never been implemented in the country.
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán previously said Hungary would not respect the court’s rulings. In November 2023, Orbán claimed the ICC’s actions against Netanyahu were “brazen, cynical, and completely unacceptable.” The Hungarian leader also suggested on multiple occasions that Hungary should reconsider its membership in the court, especially after US President Donald Trump imposed sanctions on the ICC’s prosecutor Karim Khan earlier this year.
Hungary’s decision to withdraw from the ICC is being seen as a sign of Orbán’s continuing support for Netanyahu, with whom he is believed to share strong nationalist and sovereignist views. Hungary has, in the past, even blocked EU statements and sanctions against Israel. The latest visit marks Netanyahu’s second trip abroad since the ICC’s warrant was issued, with his first being to the US, which is also not a member of the ICC.
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