Death Penalty News

King’s College London has revoked the Sultan of Brunei Hassanal Bolkiah’s honorary degree, saying his willingness to stone LGBT+ people conflicts with the “values and freedoms which are upheld and championed at King’s.” On May 5, the Sultan announced that he would not enforce the death penalty for gay sex, but the statement issued by the London university on Thursday (June 6) states that the sultan’s willingness to enact this law and other egregious penalties on LGBT+ people “provoked real anguish” within the King’s College community.  The Sultan was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws in 2011 for his commitment to higher education. The decision to rescind the degree came after considerable pressure from within the university. King’s LGBTQ+ Staff Network wrote an open letter demanding immediate action from the university. The letter was accompanied by a petition which passed over 5,000 signatures. Speaking to the BBC on April 3, Georgie Spearing, president of KCL’s L...

Brunei’s Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah has returned an honorary degree awarded by Britain’s Oxford University after a global backlash led by celebrities including George Clooney and Elton John for proposing the death penalty for gay sex and adultery. Nearly 120,000 people had signed a petition by April calling on Oxford University to rescind the honorary law degree awarded in 1993 to the sultan, the world’s second-longest reigning monarch and prime minister of the oil-rich country. Oxford University said the sultan had decided to hand back the honorary degree on May 6, while it was reviewing its decision to award it. News of the decision was made public on Thursday. “As part of the review process, the university wrote to notify the sultan on 26 April 2019, asking for his views by 7 June 2019,” the university said in an emailed statement to the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “Through a letter dated 6 May 2019, the sultan replied with his decision to return the degree.” ...

When Brunei controversially announced that it was imposing death by stoning to homosexuals, several Hollywood celebrities including George Clooney, Ellen DeGeneres and Elton John, who called out a boycott over hotels owned by the Sultan of Brunei. The boycott has proven to be effective as the Brunei ruler is now forced to back down from imposing the death penalty after a month of international pressure and backlash. In an interview on American talk show “Ellen” , the 58-year-old claimed that the boycott serves as warning for other Muslim countries like Malaysia and Indonesia, who are allegedly considering such laws as well. ➤ FIND related conte here “This is something that is manageable because it sends a warning shot over to countries like Indonesia and Malaysia who are also considering these laws that the business people, the big banks, those guys are going to say don’t even get into that business,” Clooney told DeGeneres. Clooney also previously released a sta...

"The sultan could reverse his decision on a whim, and the punishments of amputation and whipping could still be used." When the Sultan of Brunei last week announced a moratorium on the much-condemned death penalty for gay sex, some hailed the move as a major advance. But inside the tiny South-East Asian nation, members of the LGBT community says there is little reason to celebrate - and much still to fear. In an interview with the Telegraph, one gay man, who asked to be identified only as 'M', warned that the apparent turnaround would only be temporary. The moratorium declared following an international backlash was "for appearances only," he said, a "performative" reprieve adopted in part due to Ramadan.  Once the religious season was over, M said, he expected the death penalty would be reinstated. And even if it was not, he said, "it's a living hell here either way." The sultan drew global condemnation over the Shar...

Actor calls for sustained commercial boycott after Brunei puts moratorium on death penalty for gay sex George Clooney has promised to keep up pressure on Brunei after the oil-rich country’s sultan, Hassanal Bolkiah, announced it would not enforce the death penalty for gay sex. Gay sex remains illegal in Brunei, punishable by up to 10 years in jail. Clooney said the moratorium on executions was a “huge step forward after a giant leap backwards”, but that “the law to stone their citizens is still in place”. He added: “For my family and me, we simply can’t walk away until this draconian law is no longer on the books.” Clooney led the international outcry against Brunei’s ruling, which incorporated Islamic laws, or sharia, into the national penal code.  The measures were published in 2013, and the introduction of the death penalty by stoning for adultery and gay sex was announced on 3 April.  The actor first called for a boycott of hotels owned by Brunei...

BANDAR, SERI BEGAWAN - Brunei Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah on Sunday extended a moratorium on the death penalty to incoming legislation prohibiting gay sex, seeking to temper a global backlash led by celebrities such as George Clooney and Elton John. The small Southeast Asian country sparked an outcry when it rolled out its interpretation of Islamic laws, or sharia, on April 3, punishing sodomy, adultery and rape with death, including by stoning. Brunei has consistently defended its right to implement the laws, elements of which were first adopted in 2014 and which have been rolled out in phases since then. ➤ FIND related content here However, in a rare response to criticism aimed at the oil-rich state, the sultan said the death penalty would not be imposed in the implementation of the Syariah Penal Code Order (SPCO). Some crimes already command the death penalty in Brunei, including premeditated murder and drug trafficking, but no executions have been carried out since t...

A growing list of multinational banks are banning employees from staying at hotels owned by the sultan of Brunei, where homosexuality and adultery is punishable by death. J.P. Morgan , Goldman Sachs and others — called to task by celebrities such as Elton John, George Clooney and Ellen DeGeneres — have barred staff from staying at properties owned by the Dorchester Collection hotel group, run by the Brunei state-owned investment agency.  The ban includes luxury names such as Los Angeles’ Beverly Hills Hotel and Hotel Bel-Air, and London’s Dorchester and 45 Park Lane. The news was first reported by the Financial Times. A spokesperson for J.P. Morgan confirmed the report to CNBC but declined to comment further. Deutsche Bank announced its boycott of Brunei-owned properties in early April as a sign of support for LGBTQ rights. Goldman Sachs and Bank of America have confirmed to CNBC that they are no longer using the Dorchester Group. CitiGroup , Jefferies , Morg...

The oil-rich sultanate imposes harsh Shariah law on its subjects, while members of the royal family enjoy lives of conspicuous luxury. An intriguing aspect of Brunei’s barbarous Shariah laws is that if they were to be really enforced, a few of the sultan’s ridiculously wealthy, jet-setting kin would be leading candidates for death by stoning. Adultery is one of the crimes for which the archaic penalty is prescribed under the stern laws that went into effect on April 3 — along with sex between men, abortion and rape — and tabloids around the world have accumulated plenty of evidence against some Bruneian royals. Such royal hypocrisy may seem to be the norm among autocratic rulers sitting atop oceans of oil who place no limits on their own dissolute lifestyles and yet impose cruel Islamic law on their subjects. And tiny Brunei, a country roughly the size of Delaware that shares the island of Borneo with Malaysia and Indonesia, might not seem worth getting worked up about. ...

LONDON, April 5 - Travel agents, London's transport network and finance houses were among the rising number of companies on Friday to cut ties with businesses owned by Brunei to protest over the Sultanate's introduction of the death penalty for gay sex and adultery. The Muslim-majority former British protectorate on April 3 began implementing Sharia laws which punish sodomy, adultery and rape with death, including by stoning, and theft with amputation. As protests mounted globally, a corporate backlash gathered pace after actor George Clooney and singer Elton John called for a boycott of hotels owned by the Southeast Asian country, including the Dorchester in London, the Beverley Hills Hotel in Los Angeles, and the Plaza Athenee in Paris. STA Travel, a global travel agency owned by privately-held Swiss conglomerate Diethelm Keller Group, said it would no longer sell flights on Brunei's national carrier, Royal Brunei Airlines. "We've taken this st...