Sultan Of Brunei Announces Gay Sex Will Not Be Punished With Death Penalty
The Sultan of Brunei has announced the Southeast Asian country will not enforce the death penalty for gay sex following a backlash.
In a rare public statement on the website of Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah the small nation announced that the new law would not lead to executions.
Announced last month the new rules prompted celebrities to call for a boycott on hotels owned by the country's leader.
Demonstrators carried placards and banners calling for solidarity outside hotels owned by the Sultan of Brunei.
Protests were organised shortly after the south-eastern nation implemented sharia law, meaning that anybody found guilty of gay sex could be stoned to death.
But a group of celebrities, including George Clooney and Ellen DeGeneres, called for a boycott of the properties owned by the kingdom of Brunei.
The Dorchester in London and the Beverley Hills Hotel in LA are among the hotels owned by the Sultan.
No executions have been carried out in Brunei since the 1990s.