Hungary to withdraw from International Criminal Court as it hosts Benjamin Netanyahu

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.

Hungary’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”.

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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.

Mr Netanyahu has enjoyed strong support over the years from Mr Orban, an important ally who has previously been willing to stand against EU statements that are critical of Israel and to block actions against the country.

ICC judges said when they issued the warrant that there were reasonable grounds to believe Mr Netanyahu and his former defence chief were criminally responsible for acts including murder, persecution and starvation as a weapon of war as part of a “widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population of Gaza”.

The Israeli campaign has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, according to Palestinian health authorities, and has devastated the Gaza Strip. The Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 killed 1,200 people and saw more than 250 taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

The ICC also issued an arrest warrant against a Hamas leader, Mohammed Deif, in November. His death was confirmed after the warrant was issued.

Prosecutors had also sought to arrest Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and the group’s leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar. Both were killed by Israel before the request was approved.