Orbán says Hungary is quitting the ICC to end its 'half-hearted' membership

News

Orbán says Hungary is quitting the ICC to end its 'half-hearted' membership

2025-04-04 16:39 Last Updated At：16:42

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungary was never fully committed to the International Criminal Court, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Friday, a day after his government announced a decision to quit the global tribunal for war crimes and genocide.

Speaking on state radio, Orbán offered justification for why Hungary did not detain Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday when Israel's prime minister arrived in Budapest for a state visit despite an ICC arrest warrant.

“Hungary has always been half-hearted” in its ICC membership, said Orbán, who on Thursday said the ICC was “no longer an impartial court, not a court of law, but a political court.” Hungary joined the ICC during Orbán’s first term as prime minister in 2001.

“We signed an international treaty, but we never took all the steps that would otherwise have made it enforceable in Hungary,” Orbán said, referring to the fact that Hungary’s parliament never promulgated the court’s statute into Hungarian law.

The court, based in The Hague, Netherlands, issued a warrant for Netanyahu's arrest in November on suspicion of crimes against humanity for his conduct of Israel's war in the Gaza Strip. Signatories to the ICC, such as Hungary, are required to arrest any suspects facing a warrant if they set foot on their soil.

The ICC and other international organizations have criticized Hungary's defiance of the warrant against Netanyahu. Days before the Israeli leader received a red carpet welcome with full military honors in Hungary's capital, the president of the court’s oversight body wrote to the government in Hungary reminding it of its “specific obligation to comply with requests from the court for arrest and surrender.”

Judges at the ICC have in the past dismissed similar arguments that failure to promulgate the court's statute exempts countries from complying with its rulings.

Hungary's decision to leave the ICC, a process that will take at least a year to complete, will make it the only country in the 27-member European Union that is not a signatory to the court. With 125 current signatory countries, only the Philippines and Burundi have ever withdrawn from the court as Hungary intends.

The Hungarian leader, regarded by critics as an autocrat and the EU’s most intransigent spoiler in the bloc’s decision-making, is seen as using some of the tactics that Netanyahu has been accused of employing in Israel: subjugation of the judiciary, antagonism toward the EU and cracking down on civil society and human rights groups.

He is also an ally of U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, both critics of the ICC.

In March 2023, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Putin for war crimes, accusing him of responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine.

Trump in February issued sanctions against the court over its investigations into Israel's conduct of the war in Gaza, which began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages.

Israel's response has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, many of them children. In resuming its offensive in Gaza last month, shattering a ceasefire, Israel halted all imports of food, fuel and humanitarian aid to the territory’s 2 million Palestinians to pressure Hamas to release more hostages and accept proposed changes to the truce agreement.

Molly Quell in The Hague contributed to this report.

UConn returns to top of women's basketball, dominates South Carolina 82-59 to capture its 12th title

2025-04-07 06:05 Last Updated At：06:12

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — UConn is back on top of women’s basketball, winning its 12th national championship by routing defending champion South Carolina 82-59 on Sunday behind Azzi Fudd’s 24 points.

Sarah Strong added 24 points and 15 rebounds, and Paige Bueckers scored 17 points in her final game at UConn (37-3).

“Well, it’s amazing to have three players, three people like that on the same team,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “And Sarah, you would think Sarah was graduating the way she plays, right? All three of them complement each other so well. They all have such unique skill sets.”

Bueckers capped her stellar career with the Huskies' first championship since 2016, ending a nine-year drought for the team. That was the longest period for Auriemma and his program without a title since Rebecca Lobo and Jen Rizzotti led the Huskies to their first championship in 1995.

Since then the Huskies have had dominant championship runs, including in the early 2000s led by Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi, 2009-10 with Maya Moore and finally the four straight from 2013-16 with Breanna Stewart. All were in attendance in Florida on Sunday to see the Huskies' latest title.

“You just never know if you’ll ever be back in this situation again,” Auriemma said. “And there were so many times when I think we all questioned, ‘Have we been here too long? Has it been time?’ And we kept hanging in there and hanging in there and that’s because these players make me want to hang in there every day.”

Bueckers, the expected No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft on April 14, delivered for the Huskies throughout their championship season.

It was the only thing missing from an incredible UConn career that was slowed by injuries. She was the first freshman to win AP Player of the Year before missing a lot of her sophomore season with a tibial plateau fracture and meniscus tear. She then tore an ACL before the next season.

UConn closed the first half up 10 points and then put the game away in the third quarter behind Fudd, Strong and Bueckers. The trio combined for 23 of the team’s 26 points in the quarter. UConn was up 50-39 with 3:21 left in the period before closing with a 12-3 run.

Fudd, who was named the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four, and Strong got it started with back-to-back 3s, and the rout was on. Auriemma subbed Bueckers, Fudd and Strong out with 1:32 left in the game. Bueckers and Auriemma had a long hug on the sideline, having finally gotten that championship that he so wanted for her.

"They’ve all been gratifying, don’t get me wrong. But this one here, because of the way it came about and what’s been involved, it’s been a long time since I’ve been that emotional when a player has walked off the court,” Auriemma said.

Dawn Staley’s team was trying for a third title in four years and fourth overall. It would have tied her with Kim Mulkey for third most behind Auriemma and former Tennessee Hall of Fame coach Pat Summitt, who had eight.

“Our kids gave it all they had. When you can understand why you lost and when you’ve been on the other side of that three times, you understand it,” Staley said. “You can swallow it. We lost to a very good basketball team.”

UConn had reached the title game only once during its drought since 2016. The Huskies had been eliminated by heartbreaking last-second losses in the Final Four on buzzer-beaters. The Huskies’ last title game appearance came in 2022 when Staley’s team beat UConn to start the Gamecocks’ current run of success, a game that ended Auriemma’s perfect record in title games.

There seemed to be no nerves early for either team as the game got off to a fast start. The teams traded baskets for the first few minutes before the defenses started to clamp down. The Huskies led 19-14 after one quarter and then extended the advantage to 36-26 at the half. Fudd had 13 points and Strong added eight points and 11 rebounds.

AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here.