(Dan Tri) – Hungary announced that it will not arrest President Vladimir Putin according to orders from the International Criminal Court (ICC), if the Russian leader sets foot on Hungarian territory.
President Vladimir Putin (Photo: Reuters).
Chief of Office of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Mr. Gergely Gulyas, announced on March 23 that even though Hungary had signed the Rome Statute on the ICC and ratified it in 2001, the arrest of Russian President Putin was unfounded.
`We can follow Hungarian law and on that basis, we cannot arrest the Russian President. The ICC statute has not been officially used in Hungary,` Mr. Gulyas said.
Hungary’s statement was not too surprising to European countries as well as the NATO military alliance led by the US.
Hungary is also a NATO member that opposes Western military aid to Ukraine.
On March 17, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin and Russian Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Lvova-Belova on charges of `illegal deportation of children and illegal transfer of children from the territory
This is not the first time the ICC has issued an arrest warrant for a serving head of state, but the agency has never made such a move against the leader of a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.
In theory, the 123 ICC member states are obliged to execute arrest warrants if President Putin sets foot on the territory of these countries.
Russia considers the ICC’s arrest warrant for President Putin `invalid and unacceptable`.
Russia signed the Rome Statute of the ICC in 2000, but never ratified it to become a member of the ICC and ultimately withdrew its signing in 2016. Therefore, Russia does not recognize the right of judicial enforcement of
To date, Germany is the only country to publicly announce that it will enforce the ICC’s order to arrest Mr. Putin.
In response, Vice Chairman of the Russian National Security Council Dmitry Medvedev warned that if Germany decides to arrest President Vladimir Putin according to the ICC’s order, Russia will consider it a declaration of war.
`Imagine, the current head of a nuclear state comes to German territory and is captured. What does this mean? It is a declaration of war against Russia,` Deputy Chairman of the Russian National Security Council Dmitry