Hungary plans to withdraw from International Criminal Court as Netanyahu visits
Israel’s leader, sought under an International Criminal Court arrest warrant, is in Hungary for a state visit
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in Hungary’s capital early Thursday to red carpet treatment despite a warrant for his arrest issued by the world’s top war crimes court.
It was only the second foreign trip Netanyahu has made since the International Criminal Court issued the warrant against him in November.
As Netanyahu arrived in Budapest, Hungary said it would begin the procedure of withdrawing from the ICC.
“Hungary will withdraw from the International Criminal Court,” Gergely Gulyas – Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s chief of staff – wrote in a brief statement. “The government will initiate the withdrawal procedure on Thursday, in accordance with the constitutional and international legal framework.”
Netanyahu was greeted with full military honours in the Castle District of the capital Budapest, where he stood alongside Orban as a military band played and processions of soldiers on horseback and carrying swords and bayoneted rifles passed by.