European governments cannot choose whether or not to honor arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC). According to Reuters, the head of EU diplomacy, Josep Borrell, said this.
On Thursday, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Galant on charges of war crimes committed in the Gaza Strip. The third arrest warrant issued is for the apparently already killed head of the military wing of Hamas, Muhammad Dif, due to his participation in the massacre of last October 7 in the south of Israel.
“States that have signed the Rome Convention are obliged to implement the court’s decision. It’s not voluntary,” Borrell said in Nicosia, Cyprus, where he was attending a seminar for Israeli and Palestinian peace activists. All EU member states are signatories establishing the ICC treaty, the so-called of the Rome Statute. Signatories have an obligation to detain a person subject to an ICC arrest warrant if they enter their territory.
The United States rejected the ICC’s decision, and Israel called the ICC’s move anti-Semitic. “I have the right to criticize the decision of the Israeli government, whether it is Mr. Netanyahu or someone else, without being accused of anti-Semitism. This is unacceptable,” Borrell was quoted as saying by Reuters.
Another person who publicly announced that he would not respect the court’s decision was Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. He announced on Friday that he would instead invite Netanyahu to visit Hungary. The invitation was confirmed by Netanyahu’s office.
Vice President of the European Commission Věra Jourová responded to Orbán’s statement already on Friday. According to her, violating obligations towards institutions such as the ICC leads to damage to the country’s reputation. “I can’t predict, but I think Hungary’s image could be damaged,” Jourová told Euronews.
Regarding the ICC arrest warrants for Israeli politicians, the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated already on Thursday that “in the case of international arrest warrants, the prosecutor’s office and the police act” and that “it is not a political decision.” Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala and Defense Minister Jana Černochová described the ICC’s decision as “unfortunate”.
Source: spravy.pravda.sk
