Adultery and gay sex will be punishable by stoning to death and the limbs of convicted thieves will be amputated under a new law set to come into effect from next week in the tiny southeast Asian kingdom of Brunei.
A new strict Sharia penal code is to be enforced from next Wednesday defying heavy criticism that has kept the brutal provisions on hold for the last four years.
Homosexuality is already illegal in the former British protectorate, but now it will become a capital offence. The law only applies to Muslims and punishment will also be "witnessed by a group of Muslims."
Human rights groups who have lobbied against the enshrining of "cruel and inhuman punishments" reacted with horror at the decision to plough ahead with the extreme aspects of the penal code, the Daily Telegraph reports.
Amnesty International demanded an "immediate halt" to plans for vicious punishments so "heinous" that they allowed for the amputation of children's limbs.