A YouTube video is claiming that Hungary’s withdrawal from the International Criminal Court (ICC) was connected to the arrest of former president Rodrigo Duterte, who is now detained in The Netherlands while awaiting trial for crimes against humanity. This has no basis.
Published on April 4, the 8-minute spurious video bore the headline:
“DAHIL KAY DUTERTE KUMALAS SA ICC ANG HUNGARY! GEN. TORRE AT REMULLA LAGOT KAY TRUMP!
(BECAUSE OF DUTERTE, HUNGARY WITHDREW FROM THE ICC! GEN. TORRE AND REMULLA IN TROUBLE WITH TRUMP!)”
From 3:51 to 4:03 mark, the vlogger, who posted the video, said:
“Marahil nabalitaan na rin ni Prime Minister ng Hungary ang nangyari kay dating pangulong Duterte kaya siguro nasabi niya na ang ICC ay nagiging political court na.
(Perhaps the Prime Minister of Hungary also heard about what happened to former president Duterte, that’s why he said the ICC is becoming a political court.)”
The inaccurate video emerged a day after Hungary announced its decision to pull out of the ICC.
In an April 3 news conference, Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced Hungary’s exit from the ICC, on the same day he welcomed his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu, whom the ICC has accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Gaza, for a state visit.
Orban said the international tribunal was “no longer an impartial court” but has become a “political court,” adding, “this was most clearly shown by the decisions regarding Israel.”
There was no reference at all on record to Duterte’s arrest when the Hungarian prime minister made the announcement, nor was it mentioned by Gergely Gulyas, Orban’s chief of staff, in an April 3 Facebook post about their country’s exit from the ICC.
Under Article 127 of the Rome Statute, the treaty that founded the ICC, a state’s withdrawal will take effect one year after receipt of its written notice to the United Nations Secretary-General, unless the country sets a later date.
So far, only two countries have withdrawn from the 125-member court: Burundi in 2017 and the Philippines in 2019.
Duterte was arrested on March 11 and was surrendered to the ICC in The Netherlands hours later to face trial for crimes against humanity in connection with his drug war that killed thousands of suspected drug pushers and users. He has been detained at an ICC prison in Scheveningen in The Hague.
Posted by YouTube channel Robin Sweet Showbiz (created on July 25, 2017), the fraudulent video has garnered 1,700 reactions, 115 comments, and 22,222 views.
