Hungary lawmakers vote to stop Orban-initiated ICC exit

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AFP) — Hungarian lawmakers on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly to cancel the European country’s withdrawal from the International Criminal Court set in motion by former nationalist premier Viktor Orban last year.

Pro-EU conservative Prime Minister Peter Magyar, who won a landslide electoral victory in April, vowed he would reverse the yearlong exit process before it takes effect on June 2.

The 199-member Parliament voted 133 for, 37 against with five abstentions to formally repeal a law on exiting the ICC, just ahead of the deadline.

Magyar submitted the bill on Monday and rushed it through legislature in a fast-track procedure.

It is up to President Tamas Sulyok, an Orban ally, to sign the legislation into law.

The ICC’s legislative body hailed an “important decision” after the government announced last Friday it would discontinue the process of withdrawal.

Orban announced Hungary’s withdrawal last year, decrying the tribunal as a “political court,” while hosting his ally, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In 2024, ICC issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu over allegations of crimes against humanity and war crimes — including starvation as a method of warfare — in Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, prompting U.S. sanctions against top judges and prosecutors.

Magyar had previously indicated that Hungary would execute ICC warrants against anyone, even Netanyahu, despite inviting him to Budapest for later this year.

Only Burundi and the Philippines have withdrawn from the ICC.

Set up in 2002 and backed by 125 member states, the Hague-based tribunal, seeks to prosecute individuals responsible for the world’s gravest crimes when countries are unwilling or unable to do so themselves.

Since it was founded, the ICC has opened more than 30 cases for alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and offenses against the administration of justice.

But it has been struggling against a lack of recognition and enforcement power.

China, Israel, Russia and the United States are among nations that do not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC, hampering its ability to investigate their nationals.

—

By Agence France-Presse