Hungary said on Thursday that it would pull out of the International Criminal Court, announcing its decision just hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel arrived there for a visit despite facing an international arrest warrant.
The government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban had made clear that it would ignore its obligations to act on the I.C.C. warrant as a party to a 1998 treaty that established the court.
Instead of arresting Mr. Netanyahu upon his arrival in Budapest early Thursday, Hungary rolled out the red carpet, welcoming the Israeli leader at Buda Castle overlooking the Danube River with a military honor band.
In a message on Facebook. Gergely Gulyas, Mr. Orban’s chief of staff, said Hungary would begin the withdrawal process on Thursday “in accordance with constitutional and international law frameworks.”
A spokesman for the court, Fadi El Abdallah, declined to comment on the announcement.
Hungary would be the first E.U. country to withdraw from the court. But a withdrawal would not take effect for a year, since a country must give one year’s notice to withdraw from the Rome Treaty on which the court is based.
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants in November for Mr. Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, accusing them of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip.
TNYT
