The Czech Republic contributes about 1.2 million euros (equivalent to CZK 30 million) annually to the International Criminal Court (ICC), Mariana Wernerova, from the Foreign Ministry’s communications department, told CTK today.
The parliament decides on Czech participation in the Assembly of the Parties to the ICC by a constitutional majority.
Less than two weeks ago, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant on suspicion of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip. The ICC also issued an arrest warrant for one of the leaders of the Hamas terrorist movement, who the Israeli authorities say is already dead.
At the time, Foreign Ministry spokesman Daniel Drake wrote to CTK that the prosecutor’s office and the police would act in the case of international arrest warrants and that it was not a political decision.
The ICC warrants are the first ever issued for allies of the United States and the western countries, and were welcomed in many places around the world as a sign that international law
applies equally to all jurisdictions, including rich democracies, though neither Israel nor the United States participate in the ICC.
However, Prime Minister Petr Fiala (ODS) said the ICC’s decision was “unfortunate”, arguing that it weakens the court’s authority in other cases by placing elected representatives of a democratic state and leaders of an Islamist terrorist organisation “on an equal footing”.
MP Jan Bartosek (KDU-CSL), chairman of the Czech Republic-Israel Inter-Parliamentary Group, described the ICC’s decision to issue arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant as an “unbelievable legal act”, as it applied to the democratically elected prime minister of a sovereign country. He said that, in practical terms, the decision would embolden terrorist movements around the world.
Bartosek called on the government and the Foreign Ministry to consider temporarily suspending the Czech Republic’s participation in the Assembly of the Parties and recommended suspending the Czech financial contribution to the ICC.
“Not the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but the Chamber of Deputies and Senate decides by a constitutional majority on the Czech participation in the Assembly of the Parties to the ICC,” Wernerova said in response to a CTK query. “The annual mandatory contribution (to the ICC) is 1.2 million euros (about CZK 30 million),” she added.
Israel has appealed the ICC decision, said Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar last Wednesday after a meeting with Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky in Prague.
The ICC decisions should be followed by some 120 countries that have ratified the Rome Statute, including the Czech Republic, which is one of Israel’s hardline supporters in international political forums.
