Orbán says Hungary is quitting the ICC to end its ‘half-hearted’ membership

BUDAPEST Hungary AP Hungary was never fully committed to the International Criminal Court Prime Minister Viktor Orb n explained on Friday a day after his administration publicized a decision to quit the global tribunal for war crimes and genocide Speaking on state radio Orb n offered justification for why Hungary did not detain Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday when Israel s prime minister arrived in Budapest for a state visit despite an ICC arrest warrant Hungary has reliably been half-hearted in its ICC membership declared Orb n who on Thursday announced the ICC was no longer an impartial court not a court of law but a political court Hungary joined the ICC during Orb n s first term as prime minister in We signed an international treaty but we never took all the efforts that would otherwise have made it enforceable in Hungary Orb n declared referring to the fact that Hungary s parliament never promulgated the court s statute into Hungarian law The court based in The Hague Netherlands issued a warrant for Netanyahu s arrest in November on suspicion of crimes against humanity for his conduct of Israel s war in the Gaza Strip Signatories to the ICC such as Hungary are required to arrest any subjects facing a warrant if they set foot on their soil The ICC and other international organizations have criticized Hungary s defiance of the warrant against Netanyahu Days before the Israeli leader received a red carpet welcome with full military honors in Hungary s capital the president of the court s oversight body wrote to the administration in Hungary reminding it of its specific obligation to comply with requests from the court for arrest and surrender Judges at the ICC have in the past dismissed similar arguments that failure to promulgate the court s statute exempts countries from complying with its rulings Hungary s decision to leave the ICC a process that will take at least a year to complete will make it the only country in the -member European Union that is not a signatory to the court With current signatory countries only the Philippines and Burundi have ever withdrawn from the court as Hungary intends The Hungarian leader regarded by critics as an autocrat and the EU s the greater part intransigent spoiler in the bloc s decision-making is seen as using certain of the tactics that Netanyahu has been accused of employing in Israel subjugation of the judiciary antagonism toward the EU and cracking down on civil society and human rights groups He is also an ally of U S President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin both critics of the ICC In March the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Putin for war crimes accusing him of responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine Trump in February issued sanctions against the court over its investigations into Israel s conduct of the war in Gaza which began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct killing around people mostly civilians and taking hostages Israel s response has killed more than Palestinians several of them children In resuming its offensive in Gaza last month shattering a ceasefire Israel halted all imports of food fuel and humanitarian aid to the territory s million Palestinians to pressure Hamas to release more hostages and accept proposed changes to the truce agreement Molly Quell in The Hague contributed to this account Source