English National Ballet, Make-A-Wish Foundation and Tempus Magazine announced they’d be reviewing their links with Dorchester.
Large firms equivalent to Deutsche Bank prohibit their employees from staying overnight in Brunei-owned hotels.
“Brunei’s new laws violate the most basic of human rights and we believe it is our responsibility as a company to take action against them,” Deutsche Bank Chief Risk Officer Stuart Lewis said in an announcement.
The incidents follow the introduction on Wednesday of a law within the small, Muslim-majority country that would stone or flog people found to be having same-sex sex. The law also means thieves could face amputation of their right hand on their first offence and their left foot on their second.
Clooney said: “Every time we stay, meet or eat at any of those nine hotels, the cash goes straight into the pockets of men who decide to stone and punish to death their very own residents for being gay or accused of adultery.”
Most of the Brunei hotels have deleted their social media accounts following the wave of protests.
The Dorchester Collection Group issued the next statement on its website: “Inclusion, diversity and equality are at the heart of what Dorchester Collection does… We understand people’s anger and frustration, but this is a political and religious issue that we believe has no place in our hotels.”
He adds: “Our values are far from the politics of ownership.”
The Dorchester hasn’t at all times had the cleanest fame. It was the venue for the Presidents Club, an event attended by top businessmen and politicians, which was shut down last yr after members of the all-male guest list subjected among the 130 women who worked there to prolonged sexual harassment.
The decision to introduce regulations on anal sex and adultery was made by Bolkiah, one in every of the richest men on the planet, who rules a small country of 430,000 inhabitants on the island of Borneo.
The absolute monarch – who also serves as prime minister, defence minister, finance minister and foreign minister – first proposed the laws in 2013, only to be met with a wave of protests.
Homosexuality has at all times been illegal in Brunei however the sultan, who was educated at Sandhurst Military Academy within the UK, pushed the plan in a bid to extend Islam’s influence within the country.
The University of Aberdeen and King’s College London have already confirmed they’ll consider honorary degrees for the sultan, while 40,000 people have signed a petition calling on the University of Oxford, which awarded him an honorary degree in 1993, to follow suit.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has agreed to withdraw adverts promoting Brunei as a tourist destination from town’s transport network following intervention by London MP Tom Copley.
Brunei gained full independence from Britain in 1984, however the sultan still pays for about 2,000 British troops to be stationed there under a five-year deal that expires next yr.
This has raised concerns amongst LGBT soldiers within the British army, who fear they could possibly be drawn into the legal regime in the event that they serve within the country. Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said Times He sought assurances on the “highest levels” that British troops wouldn’t be affected.
The Sultan’s family didn’t at all times live as much as the standards he expected from his subjects.
The monarch was previously embroiled in a scandal involving his brother, Prince Jefri Bolkiah, during his tenure as finance minister within the Nineties. He was revealed to own 600 properties, 2,000 cars, a personal Boeing 747 and several other works by Renoir, Manet and Degas.
Jefri’s extravagant lifestyle, which got here to light in a series of lawsuits, included a harem of foreign lovers, the acquisition of erotic sculptures of him and his fiancée and a luxury yacht he called Tits.
This article was published within the print edition of the South China Morning Post under the title: Businesses avoid 5-star Sultan’s London hotel over Brunei law
