Brunei accused of ‘abusive lobbying’ ahead of EU vote on death penalties for gays and adultery
- On Thursday members of the European Parliament will vote on a resolution that ‘strongly condemns’ the laws, which allow for sodomy to be punished by stoning to death
- But before that, Brunei officials visited members’ offices unannounced with a letter defending the Southeast Asian nation’s sharia laws
Brunei has drawn global condemnation from the United Nations, governments and celebrities for Islamic laws introduced on April 3 that also punish rape with death and theft with amputation.
On Thursday members of the European Parliament (MEPs) will vote on a resolution that “strongly condemns” the laws, which allow for sodomy to be punished by stoning to death.
Ahead of the vote, a Brunei official visited MEPs’ offices unannounced with a letter defending the Southeast Asian nation’s strengthening of sharia laws and asked for meetings.
“It’s a bit rude to be honest and a bit pushy,” Bastien Valtille, who works for French MEP Pascal Durand, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “If we had known before what was inside the letter we wouldn’t have even accepted it.”
The criminalisation of adultery and sodomy is to safeguard the sanctity of family lineage and marriage of individual Muslims particularly women
Brunei said in the letter to MEPs it “does not criminalise nor has any intention to victimise a person’s status based on sexual orientation or belief including same-sex relations”.
Melanie Vogel, a political adviser, accused Brunei in an email to The Greens/European Free Alliance parliamentary group of organising “abusive lobbying action right now … distributing those mind-blowing documents”.
West sends Brunei into China’s arms with outrage over its anti-gay sharia laws
A draft of the European Parliament resolution, which staff said was likely to be adopted on Thursday, “strongly condemns the entry into force of the retrograde sharia Penal Code; (and) urges the Bruneian authorities to immediately repeal it.”
