Brunei Explains New Penal Code in a Letter to the European Parliament

In a letter, dated April 15, to the European Parliament, Brunei has tried to explain and defend its new penal code, which imposes death penalty as punishment for gay sex and adultery. It explains that the Kingdom enforced its own legislation in the interest of preserving its traditional, religious and cultural values and that there was ‘no one standard that fits all’.

A Muslim-majority Southeast Asian country, Brunei began implementing Sharia laws from April 3, punishing sodomy, adultery and rape with the death penalty, including by stoning and theft with amputation. The kingdom, through the letter, called for tolerance and respect of its sovereignty and values. It clarified that both Sharia laws and common law systems would run in parallel ‘to maintain peace and order’. “The criminalization of adultery and sodomy is to safeguard the sanctity of family lineage and marriage of individual Muslims, particularly women. Death by stoning and amputations - imposed for offences of theft, robbery, adultery and sodomy - had an extremely high evidentiary threshold requiring no less than two or four men of high moral standing and piety as witnesses.” The letter further stated that similar to the common law system, the presumption of innocence and due process are strictly adhered to in ensuring a just and fair trial.

The European Parliament has denounced the Brunei sultanate in the wake of the letter, adopting a resolution to ‘strongly condemn the entry into force of the retrograde Sharia Penal Code’ and urged Bruneian authorities to ‘immediately’ repeal it. MPs have called on the EU to consider asset freezes and visa bans on the Southeast Asian nation, and to blacklist nine hotels owned by the Brunei Investment Agency, including The Dorchester in London and The Beverley Hills Hotel in Los Angeles.