documentary. this is news asia coming up on the program the sultan and shari'a law a new penal code enters force in brunei it punishes adultery and gay sex with death by stoning we'll hear from a human rights group calling it barbaric to the core plus. malaysia's disgraced former prime minister is in court over the multibillion dollar one n.d.p. corruption scandal where did the money go and can really get it back and.

the chinese government kept them separated for years we look at how do you shock captured her sadness over the political imprisonment of her husband. i'm melissa chan welcome to the program it's good to have you with us we begin in brunei where new laws based on a strict interpretation of islam go into effect today the tiny country on the island of borneo has captured a lot of global attention not the good kind for the punishments it intends to carry out cvs will have their limbs amputated the new code would commit gay people caught having sex to death by stoning and it would send lesbians caught having sex to one hundred whips of the lash the united nations has called these laws draconian but the sultan defended them. right there in the grass. as

a small nation we always devote prayers to all our. young and yes this is driven by an international philosophy of millennia islamic monarchy. that has existed here for hundreds of years. in the system this system preserves and guarantees the rights of all people regardless of their race and then go to the temple among europe was done for going on more of them. as you can imagine there's been global shock and outrage actor and activist george clooney leveraged his fame and called for a boycott of luxury hotels from the dorchester in london to the beverly hills hotel all owned by brunei's royal family itself is one of the richest men on earth the multi-billionaire gets his money from the country's gas and oil sales and on social

media tweets expressed outrage along with the new hash tag boycott i columnist for a gay times mag tom knight tweeted people all over the world have condemned these barbaric laws but most world leaders appear to value gas oil luxury hotels and investment portfolios more than they value l g q lives and rights there is this from a local labor party councillor in the u.k. who did organize a protest over the weekend it's two thousand and nineteen and we're still having to protest against homophobic laws that belong in the dark ages and an amnesty campaign crisis manager who's worked in syria called the new law medieval but also part of the growing authoritarianism we see globally. joining us now is phil robertson of human rights watch phil is there anybody any government or any organization that would be able to stop brunei from carrying out these punishments

the reality is no there is nobody can do that i mean i think that route i is susceptible to international pressure i think that the boycott brunei effort will have some efficacy i do believe also that you know more hue and cry from the united nations and from other governments are going to certainly impact realize thinking about how to go forward with actually implementing this horrific law but if they decide to do it tomorrow if they line someone up they could certainly follow through and we would then face headlines across the world about someone being stoned to death and tell us a little bit more about this country put it in context put the penal code in context. well the sultan is an absolute monarchy is a dictator really i mean his family has run the country for more than five decades . no one can really quite figure out why now he's decided to move forward with this

this criminal shari'a code. but you know it's entirely up to him and he's a sole decision maker what we're seeing here is it's a it's a small country it's about maybe three hundred fifty thousand people it's primarily dependent on oil exports there is a little bit of tourism you know there are some small there's a small capital city but you know it is it is predominantly islamic probably better than ninety percent of the people are are muslim faith in the country and. you know the question is are they going to be concerned about this and in fact will something happen that will then cause them some degree of discontent with their government well in many ways you grabbed a question straight from my mouth which is do you have a sense of whether people welcoming this new law at all. well we have people who are defending brunei per say you know that brunei has the right to

do what it wants that it's a sovereign country but we also have people who are from bernard that we know who are were fleeing the country or of already fled to seek asylum in the west because they're because they're gay or because they're perhaps gauge in a. relationship that where someone who they're not married to you know there is also implications for people who are not muslim be there and or involved with a muslim and doing activities that are against this code they can also be. analyzed show or you know i mean it's hard to say because it is again a dictatorship people are afraid to speak up they've for that face retaliation if they did i think will have to let it play out for a while and see if their actions serious about implementing this this this horrific penal code and these medieval punishments still robertson thank you

thank you. turning now to malaysia where former prime minister najibullah zazi is on trial for his alleged role in a giant one n.d.p. corruption scandal one m.t.b. is the country's sovereign wealth fund it's a fund meant to benefit the economy and the country's citizens and is accused of stealing billions of u.s. dollars from that fund he faces multiple charges which he denies he's in court today for the theft of just one chunk of ten million dollars now james was malaysia's prime minister for a decade until losing last year's election he comes from a powerful political dynasty his father and grandfather both led to the country and now he might spend the rest of his life in prison. here's a bit more on one end or the one malaysia development bear hide it's now at the center of international investigations by a bunch of countries from singapore to switzerland to the united states

investigators say more than four point five billion u.s. dollars were stolen from one end between two thousand and nine and two thousand and fourteen they say the money was used to finance hollywood films including leonardo dicaprio as the wolf of wall street no irony there and to buy hotels art jewelry and other expensive items this super yacht was also allegedly bought with stolen money it was seized and returned to malaysia where it was recently sold to recoup one hundred twenty six million dollars keep in mind that not set up one and for the people of malaysia prosecutors now say that seven hundred million dollars from the fund ended up in his personal bank account he has been charged with forty two counts of criminal breach of trust graft abuse of power and money laundering southeast asia correspondent bastion hartig is following the story this is only the

first of several trials that malaysia's former prime minister najib razak will have to face he's being charged with money laundering abuse of power and breach of trust . if you're convicted on only one of those charges the sixty five year old could face up to twenty years in prison the one of the abuse scandal sparked outrage among malaysians leading to the historic election results of last year that unseated the both unless you know the coalition that had left the country for sixty one years now the pressure is on for malaysia's new government under former prime minister marketeer mohammed to bring to justice those who are responsible for the scandal and to recover the embezzled funds altogether some four point five billion u.s. dollars but malaysia's finance minister has already admitted that realistically two thirds of that money is gone for good lucia the wife of chinese nobel peace laureate was freed after eight years of house arrest last year she then left

china and these days lives here in berlin she's kept a low profile she has not been taking any interviews and so she's let her pictures do the talking as. kong reports from taipei. pictures without color faces without happiness these photographs were taken by lucia as the wife of a prominent political dissident in china the couple was often separated by prison bars this collection in black and white was created during the period her husband was jailed in the late one nine hundred ninety s. many were captured at their home. a thiel lake is the most ironic way because they also supposed to bring you joy to evoke something as powerful as a political movement as the horrors of our world i think was what really stood out

i think it's the most touching for me because you can see the. angry but you cannot do anything she can go out from the. as an artist meeting. changed her entire life her husband died in prison while serving an eleven year sentence for inciting subversion of state power a charge often used by chinese authorities against dissidents baling is a close friend she recalled the tough time endured during her husband's persecution of despair perfected and her works we can get back to the feeling you can feel children in this war never happy if we use more imagination we can feel. no not just sad. apart from these twenty six pictures several poems of them are also

shown in this exhibition the latest piece was written less than one year before her husband's death revealing how exhausted she felt she wasn't freed from heavy state surveillance until last year when she moved to berlin to start a new life she'd probably it's a nod political person shown in the can there she wants people think her is to drive her artist another way not only do shovels or. baling said lucia is still grappling with depression despite being physically free she still faces a long battle dealing with the psychological trauma from her experience. that story end war on our website that's come forward slash asia and you can check us out on facebook as well that's our show we'll leave you with pictures from northeastern china where workers are blasting up parts of the frozen a long river they say to reduce the chance of flooding when the weather of one is up see you next time.

up to date don't miss our highlights. program. d.w. dark cold hard. to know that seventy seven percent. are younger than thirty five. that's me and me and. you know what time of voices one hundred. seventy seven percent talk about the

issue up. front part two flashes from housing boom boom town this is where they are. welcome to the seventy seven percent. search field to six g.w. . it's a slowdown but there's still going to be a whopping five percent of growth across asia this year that's what the asian development bank is forecasting with india and china being the main engines behind that growth what about the wrists. and opens a new factory in moscow as russia's kamarck it gets moving again after years of stagnation and german carmakers jostle to get in on the action. also on the show trouble is brewing between fishing. welcome to the seventy seven percent.

for its people six g.w. . it's a slowdown but there's still going to be a whopping five percent of growth across asia this year that's what the asian development bank is forecasting with india and china being the main engines behind that growth what about the risk. and opens a new factory in moscow as russia's kamarck it gets moving again after years of stagnation and german carmakers jostle to get in on the action. also on the show trouble is brewing between fishing communities and the government asked seychelles tries to boost revenues with more aquaculture and tourism. this is true of your business. model first as western economies are struggling to maintain growth asia

is powering ahead in its latest economic outlook the asian development bank is forecasting konami growth rates of more than five percent for the near future driven largely by india and china but analysts say where there's growth there's also risk. the red flags might have been waving bravely at the beginning of march in beijing but the people's congress that took place then focused at first on risks and problems chinese premier league kick young blames the united states for slowing growth around half of all his country's exports to the us have now been slapped with tariffs. china is the largest economy on the continent growth there is now hovering around.