News - Middle East: The International Criminal Court has launched formal proceedings against Hungary after Budapest failed to execute an ICC arrest warrant against Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his official visit to the country earlier this month.

On Wednesday, the court triggered Article 87(7) of the Rome Statute -- the treaty that established the tribunal. The provision allows the court to refer non-cooperative states to the Assembly of States Parties or the United Nations Security Council.

The move came in response to Hungary’s refusal to arrest Netanyahu, wanted by the court for war crimes committed as part of the Israeli regime’s October 2023-present war of genocide on the Gaza Strip, during his April 3–6 visit to Budapest, where he was warmly received by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

Hungary’s failure to comply with the ICC’s arrest warrant had earlier prompted the tribunal to formally censure the country for breaching its obligations as a signatory to the Rome Statute.

Craig Mokhiber, a prominent human rights lawyer and former director of the New York Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, confirmed the development in a statement on X, formerly Twitter.

“The International Criminal Court (ICC) has initiated Article 87(7) proceedings against Hungary for refusing to cooperate with the ICC request to arrest Netanyahu while the fugitive was visiting Hungary,” he wrote.

Mokhiber, who resigned from the UN in October 2023 in protest at the world body’s failure to stop the war, has been a vocal critic of the international community’s inaction concerning the Israeli regime’s atrocities in Gaza. He has repeatedly called the warfare that has claimed the lives of around 51,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, a “textbook case of genocide.”

In defiance of the court’s decision, however, Hungary has announced plans to withdraw from the ICC, echoing similar decisions by other states that have faced pressure or criticism from The Hague-based tribunal.

The court issued arrest warrants against Netanyahu and his minister for military affairs, Yoav Gallant last November.

The warrants have also been issued in response to the duo’s crimes against humanity against more than two million Gazans, whom the regime has subjected to a suffocating all-out siege alongside the war.

The United States, the Israeli regime’s biggest ally, has repeatedly threatened the tribunal and its officials with sanctions over the warrants.

Source: Press TV