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New York Times
08-04-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Leaders Flex Muscles Against International Criminal Court
There aren't a lot of countries Israel's prime minister can visit without risking arrest. Which makes the red-carpet treatment Benjamin Netanyahu received in Hungary — Europe's only proud "illiberal democracy" — all the more noteworthy. Viktor Orban, Hungary's prime minister, invited Mr. Netanyahu right after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant last November for his country's alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip. And within hours the Israeli president's arrival in Hungary last week, Mr. Orban announced his country's withdrawal from the court. There are several things going on here, analysts say, which tie together the affinities of Mr. Orban, Mr. Netanyahu and President Trump. Bonding: The International Criminal Court is the most ambitious and idealistic — if deeply imperfect — version of an global judicial system to enforce human rights. Most liberals love it. Mr. Orban, Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Trump hate it. Signaling: Mr. Orban is telling the world that Hungary does what it wants: It may be a member of the European Union, but it is not constrained by it. He's telling China and Russia that Hungary is open for business. And he's telling his voters at home that it's Hungary First all the way. Testing boundaries: At a moment when global institutions are crumbling and a new order has not yet emerged, no one knows what's allowed and what's forbidden anymore. Leaders vs. the judiciary Hungary is not the first country to make exceptions for Israel. The United States and Germany have long done so. Friedrich Merz, Germany's incoming chancellor, has also ruled out arresting Mr. Netanyahu, even as Germany remains a committed member of the International Criminal Court. Hungary is also not the first signatory to the Rome Treaty that established the court to ignore it. When President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia visited Mongolia last year, it took no action on an I.C.C. warrant against him. But Mr. Orban's defiance of the court is also about something else: a desire to sideline independent judges, both at home and abroad. 'Quite simply, some international institutions have become political bodies,' he told a Hungarian radio program on Friday. 'Unfortunately, the International Criminal Court is one of these. It is a political court.' The power struggles between leaders and judges — whether international or domestic — have become a defining political theme in many countries, including Hungary, Israel, Brazil and the United States. Mr. Orban, in power since 2010, is seen by conservatives worldwide as a pioneer in asserting power over the judiciary. He has packed Hungary's constitutional court with loyalist judges and forced others to resign. He has battled against European Union courts and blasted their 'judicial overreach' when they take Hungary to task for violating E.U. rules. Mr. Netanyahu, who has denounced bribery and fraud charges against him in Israel as an effort to derail the will of voters, is pushing for his own controversial judicial overhaul. He and his allies have argued that the judiciary has granted itself increased authority, and is not representative of the diversity of Israeli society. Mr. Trump, who was convicted on 34 felony counts before being re-elected last year, says that the many legal cases against him were politically motivated. In recent weeks, his administration has defied several court orders, which could eventually lead to a constitutional crisis. And in February, he signed an executive order placing sanctions on I.C.C. officials in response the arrest warrant for Mr. Netanyahu. All three leaders — Mr. Netanyahu, Mr. Orban and Mr. Trump — talked on the phone about the court during the Israeli leader's visit to Hungary. Mr. Netanyahu visited the White House on Monday, and his office said the I.C.C. was again going to be on the agenda. 'It takes a lawless autocrat like Orban to welcome rather than arrest an accused war criminal like Netanyahu,' said Kenneth Roth, the founder of Human Rights Watch. Mr. Trump's imposition of sanctions on I.C.C. staff, he said, 'is of a piece with Orban's move.' Hungary First As Orban is strategically bonding, he is also strategically signaling to allies, investors and voters that Hungary will not be constrained by international rules and norms. It's a form of identity building, says one prominent thinker about democracy. 'Orban is playing special relations — special relations with the Russia, special relations with Trump, special relations with the Chinese,' said Ivan Krastev, chairman of the Center for Liberal Strategies. 'He's trying to create a story of Hungary being the member of the European Union that can do what they want. ' 'So if somebody wants to invest in a country in the EU, go with Hungary,' Mr. Krastev said. 'Because they can do what they want. They can veto sanctions. They can leave the International Criminal Court. They're kind of the only free spirit in the E.U.' Mr. Orban has called fellow European leaders 'warmongers' because of their support for Ukraine. He's openly lobbying for re-establishing relations with Russia after the war. Welcoming Israel's prime minister in defiance of the international court was another opportunity for him to showcase Hungary's contrarian sovereignty. Mr. Krastev sees Mr. Netanyahu's visit as a precedent — and perhaps preparation — for an even more controversial invitation for someone like Mr. Putin down the line. Mr. Orban laid out his grand strategy for Hungary in a wide-ranging and detailed speech last July, in which he outlined his vision of a new emerging world order. As he sees it, Western liberalism has lost and nationalism is back. For the next decades, or perhaps centuries, the dominant center of the world will be in Asia, he predicted. For a small economy like Hungary, that means ignoring any marching orders from Brussels or Washington to isolate Moscow or Beijing. 'We will not get involved in the war against the East,' he said. 'We will not join in the formation of a technological bloc opposing the East, and we will not join in the formation of a trade bloc opposing the East.' China's top leader, Xi Jinping, during a visit to Hungary last year, promised to invest in the country and open up opportunities for Hungarian firms to invest in China. 'We have received an offer from China,' Mr. Orban said. 'We will not get a better one.' Trump's world order Mr. Orban's defiant welcome of Mr. Netanyahu has highlighted one way the world has changed since Mr. Trump came to power: By throwing out the global rule book on longstanding alliances and trade rules, the American president has given permission to others to break the rules too. They are now testing just how far they can go. 'No one knows what's allowed and what's forbidden anymore,' Mr. Krastev said. 'They're testing the boundaries.' But Trump's ideological allies are also experiencing firsthand the unpredictability of the Trump administration, whose policies won't necessarily be favorable to their countries. Israel and Hungary — a major site of production for Germany's car industry — are among the major exporting countries that have been hit with significant U.S. tariffs. That's the intrinsic paradox of 'America First' for leaders like Mr. Orban and Mr. Netanyahu: It's one thing to make common cause with an ally who shares your nationalist agenda. It's another when 'America First' policies put every other country last.
New York Times
03-04-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
What Is the I.C.C.? What to Know After Hungary's Announced Withdrawal
Hungary's announcement on Thursday that it would withdraw from the International Criminal Court drew attention to the judicial body and raised questions about its reach. The government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced its decision to withdraw just hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel arrived for a visit. The court has issued a warrant for Mr. Netanyahu's arrest on accusations of 'intentionally and knowingly' depriving Gaza's population of food, water, fuel and medicine. Mr. Netanyahu's office rejected what it called 'absurd and false accusations.' Here is what to know about the court and its efforts to enforce justice internationally. What is the I.C.C.? The I.C.C., established under a 1998 treaty, is the world's highest criminal court. It has the jurisdiction to investigate and try people for what it describes as 'the gravest crimes of concern' to the world: war crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity and the crime of aggression. But the court cannot enforce its rulings and relies on its member states to detain people who are accused of crimes. The court draws its jurisdiction from the Rome Statute, a treaty ratified by 125 countries. The statute formally commits its signatories to arrest a wanted person who enters their soil, but members do not always comply. The court is based in The Hague, a Dutch city that is a hub for international law and justice. The International Court of Justice, which handles civil disputes between countries and is part of the United Nations, is also based there. The I.C.C. cannot try any suspects in absentia. Instead, it relies on member states to enforce its rulings with actions like making arrests, freezing assets and surrendering suspects to The Hague, where the I.C.C. has a detention center. Former President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines is currently in I.C.C. custody after being recently arrested in his country on charges of crimes against humanity. Which countries are not members of the court? Some of the world's most powerful countries, including the United States, China, Russia, India and Israel, are not members of the court. They do not honor its arrest warrants or hand their citizens over for prosecution. Hungary would be the first European Union country to withdraw from the court. Under the Rome Statute, Hungary's decision would not take effect for a year. 'Hungary remains under a duty to cooperate with the I.C.C.,' Fadi El Abdallah, the court spokesman, said in a statement on Thursday. Burundi and the Philippines have both pulled out of court, in response to the I.C.C. prosecutor opening an investigation against their leaders. The court has said that Mr. Duterte is being prosecuted because the offenses he is accused of took place before his country's withdrawal took effect, although his lawyers have contested that argument. Who has been prosecuted by the court? The court says that it has issued 60 arrest warrants. About half of those people are 'at large'; the others are either dead or detained. In November, the court issued arrest warrants for the leaders of Israel and Hamas. On the Israeli side, the warrants were for Mr. Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant. The court also issued a warrant for Muhammad Deif, a Hamas leader, who was later killed in an Israeli strike. In March, the Filipino authorities arrested Mr. Duterte. The court issued arrest warrants for President Vladimir V. Putin and another Russian official in 2023. It argued that they both bore criminal responsibility for the abduction and deportation of Ukrainian children after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The court also issued arrest warrants for four other Russian officials. Mr. Putin made his first visit to an I.C.C. member state in September, but the country, Mongolia, warmly welcomed him with a red carpet.
New York Times
03-04-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Hungary Says It Will Withdraw From I.C.C.
Hungary said on Thursday that it would pull out of the International Criminal Court, announcing its decision just hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel arrived there for a visit despite facing an international arrest warrant. The government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban had made clear that it would ignore its obligations to act on the I.C.C. warrant as a party to a 1998 treaty that established the court. Instead of arresting Mr. Netanyahu upon his arrival in Budapest early Thursday morning, Hungary rolled out the red carpet, welcoming the Israeli leader at Buda Castle overlooking the Danube River with a military honor band. In a message on Facebook, Gergely Gulyas, Mr. Orban's chief of staff, said Hungary would begin the withdrawal process on Thursday 'in accordance with constitutional and international law frameworks.' The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants in November for Mr. Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, accusing them of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip. This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
New York Times
03-04-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Netanyahu Arrives in Hungary, Finding a Rare Welcome in Europe
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Thursday began a visit to Hungary, confident that Europe's self-declared bastion of 'illiberal democracy' would ignore an arrest warrant issued against him in November by the International Criminal Court. The visit is Mr. Netanyahu's first to a country that has recognized the jurisdiction of the court, raising the possibility, at least in theory, that he could be arrested. He visited Washington to discuss the future of Gaza with President Trump in February but the United States, like Israel, has never recognized the international court. In Hungary, the government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban has made clear that it will ignore its obligations as a party to a 1998 treaty that established the court. Mr. Orban invited Mr. Netanyahu to visit shortly after the court issued its arrest warrant, assuring him that 'the judgment of the I.C.C. will have no effect in Hungary and that we will not follow its terms.' Hungary's expansive propaganda machine has embraced antisemitic tropes in its nonstop vilification of George Soros, a Hungarian-born American financier and philanthropist who is Jewish. It has cast him as the sinister puppeteer in a vast global conspiracy backed by high finance and hidden, cosmopolitan forces. But Mr. Orban, a strong supporter of Israel, has embraced the country's right-wing prime minister as a kindred spirit in tune with his own ethnonationalist views and reverence for national sovereignty free of foreign interference. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? Log in. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Times
20-03-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
‘Operation Pursuit': Inside the High-Stakes Arrest of Rodrigo Duterte
The visit had been advertised for weeks. Former President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines was going to a rally in Hong Kong during the second weekend in March. But as soon as it began, the trip took on a tantalizing element of intrigue: Was he ever coming back? To many Filipinos, it appeared that Mr. Duterte was trying to outrun justice. The International Criminal Court, a sudden swirl of speculation in the Philippines posited, was about to seek his arrest, years after it started investigating the deadly antidrug campaign he had overseen as president and as mayor of Davao. By being in Hong Kong, the theory went, Mr. Duterte would remain free because China is not a member of the court. Soon after Mr. Duterte, 79, landed in Hong Kong on March 7, the I.C.C. issued a sealed warrant for him. But wind of the move reached him. Over that weekend in Hong Kong, his entourage — which included his partner, Honeylet Avanceña, and daughter Sara Duterte, the current vice president — debated whether to stay in Chinese territory or return home, according to two Philippine officials and a former lawmaker who spoke on the record and cited Philippines intelligence. Salvador Panelo, his lawyer, disputed that account, saying Mr. Duterte had not even discussed seeking asylum in China. 'Why would Duterte escape?' he said. 'At his age, he no longer cares about what is going to happen to him.' In public, Mr. Duterte stuck to his usual bluster. At the rally that Sunday, he told a throng of mostly Filipino women that if being arrested by the I.C.C. was his fate in life, he would accept it. His allies made pronouncements that he would be back in the Philippines that Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. It was a bluff. Mr. Duterte's group had booked five flights back to Manila that day to obfuscate their actual arrival. And there was a private jet waiting at the airport for Mr. Duterte, presumably to take him on to his stronghold of Davao in the south, said Police Maj. Gen. Nicolas Torre III and Antonio Trillanes, a former senator who filed a complaint against Mr. Duterte with the I.C.C. in 2017. (Mr. Panelo, Mr. Duterte's lawyer, denied this.) Mr. Duterte landed around 9:30 a.m., hours before his camp had telegraphed. But he was detained soon after and, by the end of the day, shipped off to The Hague, where he is awaiting trial. This account of that day, much of it previously unreported, is based on recollections from General Torre, Mr. Trillanes and Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla, as well as public statements from Mr. Duterte and interviews with three of his allies. It was perhaps the most high-profile arrest for the I.C.C. For the relatives of the tens of thousands of victims of Mr. Duterte's drug war, it was, finally, a tangible step toward justice. And it is likely to define the presidency of the current leader, Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. Thousands of protesters have since accused Mr. Marcos of persecuting Mr. Duterte, his predecessor and onetime ally. The gravity of the day seemed clear to Mr. Marcos. 'There is no reason to be happy,' Mr. Marcos told Mr. Remulla. 'We shouldn't celebrate.' An 80-Page Plan Mr. Marcos was elected president in 2022, succeeding Mr. Duterte. He rose to power after forming an alliance with Sara Duterte, who won the race for vice president. Initially, he said that he would not cooperate with the I.C.C.'s investigation of Mr. Duterte's drug war because his predecessor had withdrawn the Philippines from the court. But relations between Mr. Marcos and Ms. Duterte soured soon, and he changed course on the I.C.C. In 2024, the Philippine Congress started an inquiry into the former president's war on drugs. But Mr. Duterte still seemed untouchable, years after he first condoned thousands of summary executions. Justice, many Filipinos hoped, would come from overseas. Mr. Marcos's government was also expecting the I.C.C. to seek Mr. Duterte's arrest. The Philippine police had prepared a secret 80-page plan called 'Operation Pursuit' on how to detain Mr. Duterte. It included scenarios of arresting him in Manila or Davao, according to a copy that was viewed by The New York Times. It also had maps of properties belonging to Mr. Duterte, his partner and his allies, with arrows labeling the nearby streets. In The Hague, I.C.C. prosecutors applied for a warrant for Mr. Duterte on Feb. 10, accusing him of crimes against humanity. It was issued nearly four weeks later and the Philippine authorities received it via Interpol early on March 11. That cleared the way for Mr. Duterte's detention because the Philippines was still a member of Interpol. At about 9.30 a.m., Mr. Duterte landed in Manila on Cathay Pacific flight 907. Mr. Duterte, who often uses a cane, was waiting for his wheelchair when an official boarded the plane and told him that he would be arrested on an Interpol warrant on behalf of the I.C.C. 'You would have to kill me first, if you are going to ally with white foreigners,' he told the official. 'My Children Will Go After You' But Mr. Duterte did not offer much resistance and was sent on a bus with a police escort to Villamor Air Base near the airport. There he waited in the presidential lounge where he had once greeted dignitaries including former Secretary of State Michael Pompeo. Mr. Duterte's lawyers tried to delay the reading of his rights so that he would not be taken into custody, and his wife refused for Mr. Duterte to get a checkup by a government doctor, according to General Torre. After the police officer formally arrested him, Mr. Duterte said: 'You will retire one day, and my children will go after you.' About 90 minutes after Mr. Duterte had landed in Manila, Mr. Marcos's office in Malacañang Palace announced the arrest. But Mr. Duterte continued to argue that the I.C.C. had no jurisdiction in the Philippines. 'You should prosecute me in the Philippine courts, with a Filipino judge and a Filipino prosecutor,' Mr. Duterte told General Torre and other police officers, according to a video shared by his daughter Veronica Duterte. 'You know this is politics.' The government was racing to fly Mr. Duterte on a chartered flight to the Netherlands to avoid any possible civil unrest. Mr. Duterte's allies tried to get the Supreme Court to intervene, arguing that his detention was illegal and unconstitutional. Their request was filed three minutes before the court closed for the day. International Obligations To outsiders, Mr. Duterte's fate seemed unclear as the hours ticked by. Inside the lounge, Mr. Duterte sat on the presidential chair, the same one that Mr. Marcos uses now, and had rice and barbecued meat with a Coca-Cola. In the meantime, the government was caught up in a bureaucratic nightmare. Officials needed to secure permission from other nations so the chartered plane could fly in their airspace en route to The Hague. Vietnam, the first country on their list, took three hours to respond. Another delay came because officials in Oman and the United Arab Emirates had shortened their working hours for Ramadan. Mr. Duterte then asked to see Sara Duterte, the vice president, a request the authorities rejected. At around 9.40 p.m., Ms. Duterte turned up at the base, but guards turned her away. She told reporters there that her father's arrest was a 'state kidnapping.' Inside, General Torre asked Mr. Duterte to move toward the plane. But Salvador Medialdea, Mr. Duterte's former executive secretary, stepped between the two men, trying to physically shield the former president. General Torre then arrested Mr. Medialdea for obstruction of justice, handcuffing him personally, and sent him to the plane. General Torre then turned to Mr. Duterte to say: 'It is time. If I have to bodily carry you to the jet, I would.' Mr. Duterte complied. His daughter Veronica and his partner, Ms. Avanceña were in tears. Mr. Duterte and Ms. Avanceña hugged. At 11:03 p.m., he was in the air, accompanied by a retinue that included two doctors, a nurse, three police officers and Mr. Medialdea. About 15 minutes later, Mr. Marcos addressed the nation from Malacañang Palace on the banks of the Pasig River. He rejected the notion that Mr. Duterte's arrest was political, saying, 'This is what the international community expects of us as the leader of a democratic country that is part of the community of nations.' After his speech, Mr. Marcos boarded his bulletproof boat to head back to his residence. The river was calm, and, behind him, the lights of the palace were twinkling.
