Beginning next week, adultery and sexual behaviour between people of the same gender will be punishable by death by stoning in the small Asian nation of Brunei under a new law that comes into effect on April 3.

A strict set of new laws was announced back in 2014 by the country's sultan, Hassanal Bolkiah, who doubles as the Prime Minister. The country became the first in its region to adapt Islamic sharia law. But the laws' actual implementation in the small kingdom, just north of Indonesia, has been gradual. A notice of the April 3 start date went up on the Brunei Attorney-General's website on December 29.

A strict set of new laws was announced back in 2014 by the country’s sultan, Hassanal Bolkiah, who doubles as the Prime Minister. Credit:EPA

Homosexuality has been illegal in Brunei since the country was a British colony, but the new law, in effect, makes it not just illegal, but punishable by death.

At the time of the announcement, the government website quoted the sultan as saying, "His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam, in the [command], asserted that in carrying out the Laws of Allah, the nation does not expect other people to accept and agree with it, but that it would suffice if they just respect the nation in the same way that it also respects them".

But, on Thursday, the realisation that the two provisions would be implemented in a matter of days was followed by international condemnation.

"To legalise such cruel and inhuman penalties is appalling of itself," Rachel Chhoa-Howard, Amnesty International's Brunei researcher, said in a statement.

"This new law violates the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It should be widely condemned," tweeted Richard Grenell, US ambassador to Germany, who became the first openly gay spokesperson for a Republican presidential candidate back in 2012.

"I call on the Sultanate of #Brunei to withdraw the death penalty by stoning [for] homosexual acts between consenting adults. The same goes for other countries which have the same cruel & inhuman laws. No one should be criminalised based on their sexual orientation or gender identity," Sebastian Kurz, chancellor for Austria, tweeted.

Bobby Berk, host of the TV show Queer Eye, urged people to boycott two Hollywood hotels owned by Brunei.

Washington Post

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