Hungary’s government has announced its decision to withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC), shortly after Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in the country for a state visit.
The country’s right-wing prime minister Viktor Orban invited his Israeli counterpart to Budapest in November, a day after the ICC issued a arrest warrant for Mr Netanyahu over allegations of war crimes in Gaza, where Israel launched its offensive following an attack by Hamas on southern Israel in October 2023.
Israel has rejected the accusations, which it says are politically motivated and fuelled by antisemitism.
In an announcement timed to coincide with Mr Netanyahu’s visit, Mr Orban said Hungary would withdraw completely from the ICC, an organisation set up more than two decades ago to prosecute those accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.
“This is no longer an impartial court, a rule-of-law court, but rather a political court. This has become the clearest in light of its decisions on Israel,” Mr Orban said at a news conference with Mr Netanyahu, where they did not take questions.
“You stand with us at the EU, you stand with us at the UN, and you’ve just taken a bold and principled position on the ICC… It’s important for all democracies to stand up to this corrupt organisation,” Mr Netanyahu told Mr Orban.
As a founding member of the ICC, Hungary is theoretically obliged to arrest and hand over anyone subject to a warrant from the court, but Mr Orban made clear that Hungary would not respect the ruling, which he called “brazen, cynical and completely unacceptable”.
Hungary signed the ICC’s founding document in 1999 and ratified it in 2001, but the law has not been promulgated in the country. Gergely Gulyas, Mr Orban’s chief of staff, said in November that although Hungary had ratified the Rome Statute of the ICC, it “was never made part of Hungarian law”.
Earlier on Thursday, Mr Gulyas told state news agency MTI that the government would launch the withdrawal process later in the day.
Mr Orban raised the prospect of Hungary’s exit from the ICC after US president Donald Trump imposed sanctions on the court’s prosecutor, Karim Khan, in February.
“It’s time for Hungary to review what we’re doing in an international organization that is under U.S. sanctions,” Mr Orban said on X (formerly Twitter) in February. The bill on starting the year-long process of withdrawing from the ICC is likely to be approved by Hungary’s parliament, which is dominated by Mr Orban’s Fidesz party.
Caspar Veldkamp, the foreign minister of the Netherlands, which hosts the ICC, said on Thursday that until its withdrawal from the ICC was complete, which he said takes about a year, Hungary must still meet its duties.
European Union countries have been split on the ICC warrant. Some said last year that they would meet their ICC commitments, while Italy said there were legal doubts, and France said it believed Mr Netanyahu had immunity to ICC actions.
Germany’s next chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said in February that he would find a way for Mr Netanyahu to visit Germany without being arrested.
