Brunei deferred to an undetermined date the implementation of a sharia-based penal code, which includes punishments such as amputations and death for certain crimes, a news report said today.

Jauyah Zaini, assistant director of the country’s Islamic Legal Unit, said yesterday the deferment of the sharia penal code was “due to unavoidable circumstances”, the Brunei Times newspaper quoted her as saying.

The penal code had been supposed to start implementation today.

The sharia penal code, includes laws which impose corporal punishments like stoning to death for those convicted of the crimes of adultery, gay sex and rape and amputation of arms for robbery.

Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, Brunei’s sultan and prime minister, announced in October the implementation of sharia penal code starting in April.

Brunei is a tiny oil-rich South-East Asian sultanate with a little over 400,000 people, about 67 percent of whom are Muslims.

- dpa


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Brunei defers implementation of sharia-based penal code