Hungary will not arrest Putin on its territory

Gergely Gulyás, chief of staff to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, said this during a briefing, Reuters reports.

Gulyás said the Rome Statute had not been incorporated into the Hungarian legal system. 

"We can refer to the Hungarian law, and on this basis, we cannot arrest the Russian President because the ICC Statute has not been promulgated in Hungary," Gulyás said.

He said the government "had not formed a stance" on the arrest warrant for Putin.

Hungary signed the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court in 1999 and ratified it in 2001.

As a reminder, on 17 March, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova.

Putin and Lvova-Belova are to be arrested immediately on the territory of 123 states parties to the Rome Statute.