“The nation of Brunei will start stoning and whipping to death any of its citizens convinced of being homosexual,” wrote George Clooney in a column published on the website Deadline . Revolted, the actor called in his article to boycott nine hotels related to Hassanal Bolkiah, the billionaire sultan of the small oil country of South-East Asia, ruled with an iron hand since 1967. A message which is attached to Elton John in a series of tweets published on Saturday.
George Clooney called for a boycott of several palaces, two of which parisians Look on Figaro Live
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“I would like to congratulate my friend George Clooney to be demonstrated against the discrimination of homosexuals and intolerance in Brunei – a place where gays are mistreated physically, or even worse – by boycotting the hotels of the sultan”, wrote the british singer, married to David Furnish since 2014. “We need to send the message, with the means we have, that this treatment is unacceptable. This is why David and I have long refused to stay in these hotels and will continue to avoid them,” said the interpreter of Rocket Man .
The singer then recalled the list of the establishments concerned, which includes Le Meurice and Hôtel Plaza Athénée in Paris. “We think hard about the great people who work hard in these facilities owned by the sultan of Brunei, and we know that many of them are gay”, he added.
Dual court system
If the sharia, islamic law, is applied in Brunei for 2014, these new discriminatory measures against homosexuals, will not come into force as of 3 April next.
The Prime minister’s office of Brunei issued on Saturday a communiqué recalling that the country has a “dual justice system”, one islamic, applies only to muslims -representing more than two-thirds of the population; the other civil, for the whole of the inhabitants of the country. “With the entry into full force” of this islamic law from 3 April, the two systems will continue to apply in parallel in order to maintain peace and order and to preserve the religion, life, family, and individuals regardless of their gender, nationality, race and confession”, he wrote.
The sultan of Brunei, at the head of the country since his 21-year-old is regarded as one of the richest men on the planet. In April 2011, Forbes estimated his fortune at $ 20 billion, making him the third monarch or member of a royal family the richest in the world, behind the king of Thailand (who died in 2016) and Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Sheikh of Dubai.
