UK Foreign Office Urges Brunei To Ensure Priority Of Common Law Over Sharia Penal Code

LONDON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th April, 2019) The United Kingdom urges the authorities of Brunei to respect human rights and to ensure that justice in the country will be carried out in accordance with the Common Law rather that with the new norms of Sharia Penal Code that entered into force earlier in the day, UK Minister of State for Asia Mark Field said on Wednesday.

The Islamic Sharia laws entered into force in Brunei on Wednesday. The laws, elements of which were first adopted in 2014 and which have been rolled out in phases since then, introduce death by stoning as punishment for such offenses as rape, adultery, and defamation of Prophet Muhammad, as well as amputation of limbs for robbery.

"The UK strongly opposes capital and corporal punishment, whatever the crime. We strongly support LGBT+ rights and are clear that nobody should face persecution or discrimination because of who they are or who they love. The Government of Brunei have reassured us that the Common Law will operate in parallel with the Sharia Penal Code and will continue to be the Primary means of administering justice in Brunei. I urge Brunei to ensure that this is the case and to uphold its international human rights obligations," Field said in a statement.

The implementation of the strict Islamic laws has already drawn widespread criticism. Politicians in Europe and the United States have slammed the plans and raised concerns with Brunei. Brunei's monarch and Prime Minister Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah has defended the new order, saying it aims to educate individuals, not just punish them.

Brunei, a Muslim-majority former British protectorate with a population of around 400,000 which neighbors two Malaysian states on Borneo island, already enforces Islamic teachings more strictly than Malaysia and Indonesia, the other Muslim-majority countries in Southeast Asia.

Brunei had signed, but not ratified, the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Although the country's laws provide for the death penalty, it is applied extremely rarely in practice. The last death sentence was passed in 2017 for a drug offense.