Hungary Drops Plan to Leave International Criminal Court

Hungary's new Prime Minister Peter Magyar announced on social media that the government has withdrawn its intention to leave the Rome Statute, the founding treaty of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The previous government, led by Viktor Orban, submitted the withdrawal proposal to parliament last May. It was supported by 134 MPs, with 37 opposed and seven abstaining.

Gergely Gulyas, then head of the Government Office, said that while the ICC had been an admirable initiative, it had become a political body. He argued that some of the court's decisions in recent years had been politically motivated and had interfered in unresolved conflicts.

The ICC is the first permanent criminal tribunal established to prosecute crimes against humanity, genocide, war crimes and crimes of aggression. It was founded in 1998 under the Rome Statute. Hungary had been the first European Union member state to take steps to withdraw.

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