Szijjártó: Bill on Hungary’s withdrawal from ICC submitted to parliament

Minister Szijjártó said the Hungarian government has moved to pull out of the Rome Statute and withdraw Hungary from the ICC.

Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said Hungary’s foreign ministry has prepared and submitted to parliament the bill on the country’s withdrawal from the International Criminal Court.

“The International Criminal Court has discredited not only itself, but the entire international judicial system with its openly anti-Semitic decision to issue an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,” Minister Szijjártó said, according to a ministry statement.

“The ICC has reduced the international judicial system to a politically motivated institution with this decision,” he said. “And we Hungarians don’t wish to be part of a politically motivated judicial system.”

Minister Szijjártó said the Hungarian government has therefore moved to pull out of the Rome Statute and withdraw Hungary from the ICC.

He said parliament could start debating the bill before the end of the month and schedule a vote on it at the end of May, before notifying the United Nations.

“Under international law, our withdrawal will enter into effect a year from now,” Minister Szijjártó said.