Pride march
Celebrities and international organisations call for the boycott of all hotels owned by Brunei’s wealth fund. The backlash came after the country has passed a shocking new law that makes homosexual sex punishable by death by stoning.
The law was labelled as “medieval” and inhumane. Brunei’s new measure makes homosexual sex and adultery offences punishable by stoning to death. Additional crimes, such as theft, are now punishment by amputation.
Celebrities George Clooney and Elton John have spoken out against the new law. Meanwhile, Amnesty International issued a statement criticizing Brunei’s Sharia Penal Code. It said the legal changes were announced in a discreet notice on the attorney general’s website.
“To legalize such cruel and inhuman penalties is appalling of itself. Some of the potential ‘offences’ should not even be deemed crimes at all, including consensual sex between adults of the same gender,” said Rachel Chhoa-Howard, Brunei Researcher at Amnesty International.
“These abusive provisions received widespread condemnation when plans were first discussed five years ago.”
Elton John released a list of hotels owned by Brunei sovereign wealth fund, the Brunei Investment Agency, a government-owned wealth fund that invests on behalf of the small oil-rich sultanate.
- Dorchester, London
- Hotel Bel-Air, Los Angeles
- Beverly Hills Hotel, Los Angeles
- 45 Park Lane, London
- Coworth Park, UK
- Le Meurice, Paris
- Hotel Plaza Athenee, Paris
- Hotel Eden, Rome
- Hotel Principe di Savoia, Mi
“Let’s be clear, every single time we stay at or take meetings at or dine at any of these nine hotels we are putting money directly into the pockets of men who choose to stone and whip to death their own citizens for being gay or accused of adultery,” Clooney said.
