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Hungary would not arrest Putin despite an arrest warrant

Hungary would not arrest Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose arrest was warranted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), on its territory.

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Hungary would not arrest Putin despite an arrest warrant

Hungary would not arrest Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose arrest was warranted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), on its territory. This was stated by Chancellor Gergely Gulyas at a press conference in Budapest on Thursday. "Hungary never proclaimed the ICC statute," he said. It contradicts the Hungarian constitution. The President was therefore unable to countersign it, he added.

The ICC in The Hague issued an arrest warrant against Putin for war crimes in Ukraine last Friday. According to the court, the Russian President is allegedly responsible for the deportation of Ukrainian children from occupied territories to Russia. Hungary's right-wing populist Prime Minister Viktor Orban maintains a relatively good relationship with the Kremlin ruler.

Hungary signed the Rome Statute of the ICC in 1999, ratified it in 2001 and deposited the relevant documents at the seat of the Court in the same year. At the same time, changing conservative presidents failed to countersign the ratification law. They referred to alleged incompatibilities with the Hungarian constitution. The ICC regards Hungary as a signatory state and is therefore bound by the statute. The matter is controversial among Hungarian lawyers.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev had previously warned that arresting Putin abroad as a result of the International Criminal Court's arrest warrant would be a declaration of war on his country. “For example, an incumbent president of a nuclear power comes to Germany and is arrested. What is that? A declaration of war on the Russian Federation,” Medvedev told state news agency TASS.

Despite these threats, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock supported the international arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin. "Nobody is above the United Nations Charter, nobody is above international humanitarian law, nobody can commit war crimes and crimes against humanity with impunity," said the Green politician on Thursday after meeting her Macedonian colleague Bujar Osmani in the capital Skopje. Baerbock added: "That's why we are now supporting the International Criminal Court with a view to the arrest warrant."

Osmani said North Macedonia condemned the Russian attack on Ukraine from the start and sent humanitarian and military aid. The government in Skopje has joined all EU sanctions packages against Russia. "There will be accountability for all offenders," Osmani said. North Macedonia is currently the chair of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

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