Brunei will adopt a law punishing death by stoning homosexuality

The tiny and prosperous nation of South-West Asia – whose official religion is Sunnism – has begun the adoption of Islamic law in 2013 by decision of his monarch, Sultan Hbadbad Bolkiah.

To this day, homobaduality was illegal, as when Brunei was a British colony (the country has been independent since 1985). But from April 3rd a new penal code will be imposed on the basis of Islamic law by which this same "crime" will not be punished with jail but with badping or stoning.

Since 2014 the public Christmas celebration was banned (limited to interior doors in houses and churches), alcohol is illegal and there are fines provided for those who do not pray in the Muslim rite Friday or having children out of wedlock.

Sultan Hbadbad Bolkiah called Sharia implementation "a great achievement," but Rachel Chhoa-Howard, a researcher at Amnesty International in Brunei, said that the new laws "constitute a restriction on the freedom of expression".

"In addition to imposing cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment, the new code shamelessly restricts the right to freedom of expression, religion and belief, and codifies discrimination against women and girlsChhoa-Howard explained, for whom also some of the "crimes" should not be considered as such, as in the case of "consensual badual relations between adults of the same bad".