Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has announced that Malaysia will withdraw from the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

“We withdraw the signature because people are easily misled on emotional feelings,” he told a press conference in Putrajaya this afternoon.

On March 4, it was reported that Foreign Affairs Minister Saifuddin Abdullah had signed the Instrument of Accession to the Rome Statute.

The Rome Statute has been adopted by more than 100 countries in 1998 during a conference in Rome and which established the ICC.

The ICC came into force in 2002 and aims to end impunity against the perpetrators of the most serious crimes.