Hungary breached obligations by failing to arrest Israel’s Netanyahu during April visit: ICC
The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Friday said Hungary failed to fulfil its obligation under the Rome Statute when it failed to comply with the court’s request concerning the warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s arrest.
The ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber said in a statement that it will refer the matter to the Assembly of States Parties. The ICC issued a warrant for Netanyahu’s arrest last November, citing allegations of war crimes in the Gaza war.
Netanyahu paid an official visit to Hungary in April this year, the court noted, adding that the Hungarian authorities had failed to comply with a request the court made on 21 March for their cooperation in the provisional arrest of the Israeli prime minister. The court said it had invited Hungary for several consultations, but “the Hungarian state did not respond or request consultations.”
It said the Hungarian government had argued that the reason why it had not complied with the court’s request was that it had “not adopted the necessary legislation that would allow its law enforcement agencies to do so”. The government had also cited Netanyahu’s “state immunity” under international law, and argued that the arrest warrant against Netanyahu “cannot be regarded as an impartial and objective legal act”, the statement said.
But the court said “the absence or inadequacy of implementing domestic legislation cannot justify non-compliance with States Parties’ obligations under the Statute”, and immunity did not apply in this case.
“The obligation to cooperate was sufficiently clear to Hungary,” the court said, adding that “failure to arrest suspects severely undermines the Court’s ability to carry out its mandate.”
“As a State Party to the Statute, Hungary accepted to be bound by the Court’s decisions and cannot unilaterally decide whether or not to comply with requests for cooperation on the basis of its views and opinions about some of those decisions,” the statement said.
The court noted that though Hungary announced its intention to leave the Rome Statute system last month, the country’s withdrawal will only take effect on 2 June 2026, until which it is bound by the Statute.
The Pre-Trial Chamber said it will refer the matter of Hungary’s non-compliance to the Assembly of States Parties, which will decide on the next steps at its annual meeting in December.
Read more news about Israel-Hungary relations on Daily News Hungary.
Read also: