25/01/2024
Queen Elizabeth II, and Haji Hassanal Bolkiah, The Sultan of Brunei, attend a Banquet, during The State visit of Queen Elizabeth ii, and Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh to Brunei, at The Istana Nurul Iman, in Brunei on September 18, 1998 in Brunei..
But following international outcry, Bolkiah ruled that a moratorium on the death penalty in Brunei should be extended to the new law.
It means that, while the penalty for gay s*x is still officially death by stoning, the Sultan has agreed not to use it. Brunei has not hosted a public ex*****on since 1957.
Issues surrounding human rights in the country are not the only controversies the Sultan has faced during his reign.
In 1997, his younger brother Jefri Bolkiah, Prince of Brunei, was sued by a woman who claimed she was held as a 'virtual prisoner', drugged and s*xually abused.
Hassanal also had open disagreements with Jefri over business dealings, when in July 1998 a network of companies and investment vehicles he owned under the name 'Amedeo' collapsed underneath $10billion of debt.
The Prince was accused of misappropriating state funds, and after years of legal battles - including in Britain - he will be arrested if he ever sets foot in the UK.
Thanks to Brunei's oil reserves, Bolkiah and the royal family are known to be extremely wealthy. When the country gained independence in 1984, it had one of the highest per-capita incomes of any nation - almost $50,000 a year.
In 2008, he was believed to be worth around $20billion, and has often displayed his exorbitant wealth. He is reported to have purchased his own Boeing 747 aircraft for $400million, which is adorned with luxuries such as a golden wash baisin.
He also owns a fleet of 7,000 luxury cars - which includes 600 Rolls Royce cars - and reportedly spends $20,000 on a single haircut.
Prince Jefri is believed to have purchased the collection - worth billions of dollars - for himself, which landed the royal family in trouble.
The Sultan sued Jefri over
