Gay Sex Now Punishable By Stoning To Death Under Sharia Law In Brunei

The new laws in Brunei, a small East Asian country between two Malaysian states on Borneo in Borneo, were announced "in a discreet notice" on its attorney general's website.

Even before this, it was illegal to be homosexual in Brunei -- people faced 10 years in prison. But with these new changes, Muslims who are found guilty of things like sodomy, adultery and rape could be whipped or stoned to death.

The human rights group Amnesty International, who called the Islamic laws for participating in gay sex and other crimes as "vicious," is opposed to the measures, which were first proposed in 2013.

Hassanal Bolkiah is the ruling sultan in Brunei. According to the Daily Mail, Bolkiah has full executive authority in Brunei, where criticism of laws or policies is rare.

Under Brunei's new and updated Sharia Penal Code, people could have a right hand amputated for the first offense of theft. A person could lose their left foot for a second offense. The Daily Mail says Brunei's new Sharia Penal Code, which takes effect April 3, also applies to children.

According to The Daily Mail, Brunei was the first country in East Asia to introduce Islamic criminal law. Amnesty International has called the new code a "deeply flawed piece of legislation."

Amnesty International's Brunei researcher, Rachel Chhoa-Howard, says some of the new offenses shouldn't even be offenses, "including consensual sex between adults of the same gender."

Chhoa-Howard went on:

"To legalise such cruel and inhuman penalties is appalling of itself."

"Brunei must immediately halt its plans to implement these vicious punishments and revise its penal code in compliance with its human rights obligations."

"The international community must urgently condemn Brunei's move to put these cruel penalties into practice."