BREAKING: Hungary withdrew from the International Criminal Court – UPDATED

The government has decided to quit its International Criminal Court membership, the head of the Prime Minister’s Office said on Thursday. Gergely Gulyás said Hungary would initiate the termination procedure “within the constitutional and international legal framework” later in the day.

The ICC “used to be a respectable initiative, but recently it seems to have become a political body,” the minister said, adding that “pressing charges against Israeli head of government Benjamin Netanyahu has been the saddest example.” “The Hungarian government considers all that unacceptable, and has decided not to continue participation in the ICC’s activities.”

Hungary has been “in a peculiar situation as … the national assembly has never proclaimed the ICC statues, therefore the document has not become a part of Hungarian law,” Gulyás said. “Our clear legal position is that nobody should be arrested or prosecuted in Hungary on that basis,” he said. The government wants to resolve “the questionable situation” through “leaving the ICC … rather than by proclaiming its statutes,” he said.

The ICC’s activities have recently raised “serious concern internationally”, Gulyás said. The United States, China, and Turkey have never joined the body, while “the US wants to sanction ICC judges with bipartisan support,” he said, adding that “the incoming German chancellor and the incumbent Prime Minister of Poland have made it clear that despite … their legal obligation they would ignore the ICC’s decision and welcome the Israeli head of government”.

UPDATE: Bill on Hungary’s withdrawal from ICC submitted to parliament

Hungary’s foreign ministry has prepared and submitted to parliament the bill on the country’s withdrawal from the International Criminal Court, Péter Szijjártó, the foreign minister, said on Thursday. “The International Criminal Court has discredited not only itself, but the entire international judicial system with its openly anti-Semitic decision to issue an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,” Szijjártó said, according to a ministry statement.

“The ICC has reduced the international judicial system to a politically motivated institution with this decision,” he said. “And we Hungarians don’t wish to be part of a politically motivated judicial system.” Szijjártó said the Hungarian government has therefore moved to pull out of the Rome Statute and withdraw Hungary from the ICC. He said parliament could start debating the bill before the end of the month and schedule a vote on it at the end of May, before notifying the United Nations. “Under international law, our withdrawal will enter into effect a year from now,” Szijjártó said.

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