Sultan Hassanal of Brunei, the world's longest-reigning living monarch
Descending from a family that ruled Brunei for more than 600 years, the absolute monarch today at 78 still holds numerous positions in his oil-abundant state.
He is the country's prime minister, defence minister, finance and economy minister, as well as foreign affairs supremo.
Apart from his political duties, the sultan is also commander-in-chief of the Royal Brunei Armed Forces and the Inspector-General of the Royal Brunei Police Force.
Under his stewardship, Brunei became one of the world's richest countries and gained independence from Britain in 1984 after almost a century of colonial rule.
While the sultan has long lost the title of the world's richest man to tech billionaires, his wealth remains the stuff of legend.
The Guinness Book of World Records says his home, Istana Nurul Iman, which translated in English means "Palace of the Light of Faith" is the largest residential palace in the world.
Lavish lifestyle
The sultan is also renowned for owning the world's largest private car collection.
His gigantic fleet boasted at least 7,000 cars, valued at more than five billion dollars.
Parties thrown by him and younger brother Prince Jefri Bolkiah in the 1980s and 1990s were said to be extravagant, costing millions of dollars with guests hanging out with stars like Michael Jackson.
Brunei's living standards have soared to among the highest globally under his rule.
But his reign has also been marked by controversies including the introduction of tough Islamic laws legislating penalties such as the severing of limbs and death by stoning.
Brunei was the first country in East or Southeast Asia to introduce sharia law at a national level in 2019 after years of delays.
The harsh laws included death by stoning for adultery and gay sex and the amputation of a hand or foot for theft, which rights campaigners branded as "barbaric".
Those punishments, however, have not been actively enforced following international backlash.
Analysts said at the time the new code might be partly symbolic, as Sultan Hassanal was seeking to burnish his Islamic credentials among conservatives and win more support amid concerns about the economy.
The royal family was also deeply embarrassed by a sensational feud between Sultan Hassanal and Prince Jefri over the latter's alleged embezzlement of $15 billion during his tenure as finance minister in the 1990s.
During the scandal, salacious details emerged of the prince's jet-set, un-Islamic lifestyle, including allegations of a high-priced harem and a luxury yacht he owned called "Tits".
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
AFP
2 days ago
- AFP
Clip of Pakistan PM niece's supposed criticism is edited
"When electricity and petrol prices increase then you should know that the prime minister is a thief," Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz is heard saying in a July 16, 2025 Facebook reel. "Maryam Nawaz called her own uncle and the current Form 47 Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif a thief in front of the public," reads Urdu-language text overlaid to the clip. "Form 47" refers to allegations Sharif's party rigged the country's most recent vote to sweep to power, made by the party of his rival and predecessor Imran Khan (archived link). Image Screenshot of the false Facebook post taken August 6, 2025, with a red X added by AFP Similar posts also surfaced on X, Instagram, and TikTok. But a Google search of keywords from Maryam's speech led to an Aaj Television report published on YouTube on October 17, 2021 which shows her speaking during a rally in the eastern city of Faisalabad (archived link). The circulating clip was taken from the longer video's 3:31 to 4:01 mark but excludes portions that clearly indicate Maryam Nawaz was criticising Imran Khan. She was repeating earlier comments made by Khan when he was leading the political opposition against the powerful Sharif family (archived link). During her speech, Maryam Nawaz shows a poster with Khan's name and reads his quote: "When electricity and petrol prices increase then you should know that the prime minister is a thief." At the time of her speech, Khan was Pakistan's prime minister. The former cricket star-turned premier has been jailed since August 2023 on a slew of corruption charges his party says are politically motivated (archived link). Image Screenshot comparison of clip in false posts (L) and Aaj Television's report Pakistani English-language daily Dawn in its report on the rally also quotes Maryam Nawaz as saying: "There was a man named Imran Khan, who used to say when flour becomes expensive, when sugar prices rise, when rates of electricity and petrol rise, know that your prime minister is a thief" (archived link). Soaring fuel costs globally, coupled with demands from the International Monetary Fund to slash government subsidies, led successive Pakistani administrations to repeatedly hike electricity costs (archived link). Prices have fluctuated since 2022 but peaked at a 155-percent increase, and power bills sometimes outweigh rents. AFP has debunked more misinformation targeting Maryam Nawaz here, here and here.
Euronews
3 days ago
- Euronews
Indonesian court sentences two men to public caning over sexual acts
An Islamic court in Indonesia's western Aceh province sentenced two men to public caning on Monday, after Islamic religious police caught them engaged in what the court deemed were sexual acts. The trial at the Islamic Shariah District Court in Banda Aceh, the provincial capital, was held behind closed doors. Judges have the authority to limit public access in such a case and open it only for the verdict. The two men, aged 20 and 21, were arrested in April after residents saw them entering the same bathroom at Taman Sari city park and reported it to police patrolling the area. The police broke into the toilet and caught the men kissing and hugging, which the court considered a sexual act. The lead judge, Rokhmadi M. Hum, said the two college students were "legally and convincingly" proven to have violated Islamic law by committing acts that lead to gay sexual relations. The court didn't publicly identify the men. Prosecutors previously sought 85 strokes of the cane for each of the men, but the three-judge panel decided on what they described as lenient punishment because the men were outstanding students who were polite in court, cooperated with authorities and had no previous convictions. The judges also ordered the time they have served to be deducted from their sentence. It means the number of lashes will be reduced by four as they have been detained for four months. The prosecutor, Alfian, who like many Indonesians uses only a single name, said he was not satisfied with the lighter sentence, but said he will not appeal. Aceh is the only province in Muslim-majority Indonesia allowed to observe a version of Islamic law. It allows up to 100 lashes for morality offenses including gay sex. Caning is also punishment for adultery, gambling, drinking and for women who wear tight clothes and men who skip Friday prayers. Indonesia's secular central government granted Aceh the right to implement the law in 2006 as part of a peace deal to end a separatist war. Aceh implemented an expansion in 2015 that extended the law to non-Muslims, who account for about 1% of the province's population. Human rights groups have criticised the law, saying it violates international treaties signed by Indonesia protecting the rights of minorities. Indonesia's national criminal code doesn't regulate homosexuality. Monday's verdict was the fifth time that Aceh has sentenced people to public caning for homosexuality since the Islamic law was implemented. In February, the same court sentenced two men to public caning for gay sex after neighbourhood vigilantes in Banda Aceh suspected them of being gay and broke into their rented room and caught them naked and hugging each other.
AFP
3 days ago
- AFP
Video shows crime scene reconstruction in Tehran, not 'Iran parading Israeli spies'
The video, comprising two short clips appearing to show people in prison garb escorted down a street and someone being hanged, was shared on Weibo on July 2, 2025 by Chinese newspaper Reference News. Simplified-Chinese text superimposed on the video reads: "Iran executes Mossad spies. Before the execution, they were paraded on the streets in handcuffs and shackles." It has been viewed over 152,000 times. Image Screenshot of false Weibo post captured on August 6, 2025, with a red X added by AFP The clip's caption adds that the video was originally shared by Iranian news anchor Sahar Emami on July 1 -- though an archive of the post shows it was in fact published by a "commentary account" impersonating the TV presenter (archived link). The impostor account has since been suspended. Similar posts were also shared in multiple languages on Threads, TikTok, Facebook and Instagram. They surfaced after Iran and Israel exchanged fire in June, which left more than 1,000 people dead in Iran and 29 in Israel (archived link). A ceasefire announced by the United States has been in place since June 24. Activists warned that Iranian authorities had unleashed a "wave of repression" following the war, accusing the Islamic republic of using fear to compensate for weaknesses revealed by the conflict (archived link). The Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights said six men had been hanged on charges of spying for Israel since the start of the conflict on June 13. The video circulating online, however, does not show "spies" paraded through Iran. Crime scene reconstruction A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the first falsely shared clip led to the same footage posted on Instagram on March 27 (archived link). Its Persian-language caption indicates it was filmed where a university student was murdered in Tehran . Image Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared clip (left) and the Instagram video from March 27 (right) Subsequent keyword searches led to a similar video published by the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA) with a title saying it shows a crime scene reconstruction with the suspect (archived link). Image Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared clip (left) and the ISNA video (right), with corresponding elements highlighted by AFP AFP reported that the murder of Amir Mohammad Khaleghi, a 19-year-old business student at Tehran University, sparked outrage and student protests for better security on campus (archived link). According to local media reports, Khaleghi was killed by robbers near the university's dormitory on February 12. News website Iran Front Page reported on February 20 that police reconstructed the crime scene with the murder suspects in the presence of court and law enforcement officials and forensics experts (archived link). "The reconstruction aims to provide a clearer understanding of the events and assist in completing the investigation," the report said. Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency also reported on the reconstruction (archived link). The false clip was earlier debunked by the Arab fact-checking platform Misbar (archived link). Backstage footage The second falsely shared clip has also previously been debunked by AFP. A reverse image search led to longer footage published on YouTube on April 16, 2024, titled "Hanging the actor backstage" (archived link). The full clip shows the actor raising his head after the scene. Image Screenshot comparison of falsely shared video at 0:04 mark (L) and the YouTube video Another version of the clip was shared on Instagram on January 3, 2025 with the caption, "Behind the scenes of the execution of the Bi Badan film" (archived link). The entertainment database IMDb says the 2024 Farsi-language film is an adaptation of a famous criminal case in the 1990s "which went back and forth several times until the execution stage" (archived link). The execution scene can be seen from a different angle between the movie's four to five-minute marks, an AFP journalist found. The Iran-Israel war triggered a wave of misinformation, some of which AFP has debunked here.
