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The Sultan - one of the world's richest men - is suing his brother and 71 other people for allegedly squandering $16bn of oil-derived state reserves.
 The sultan is suing his younger brother
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The court granted Prince Jefri $300,000 a month living expenses - well above the $59,000 he was originally allowed, when his assets were frozen as a result of the civil lawsuit filed by the government.
Brunei |
Population: 322,982 (July 1999 est)
Government: Constitutional sultanate
Chief of state: Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah
Elections: none; the monarch is hereditary
Religions: Muslim (official) 63%, Buddhism 14%, Christian 8% (1981)
Languages: Malay (official), English, Chinese
Independence: 1 January 1984 (from UK)
Facts: CIA
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Prince Jefri resigned as finance minister in 1998 after the country's largest private company, Amedeo Development Corp, lost an estimated $16bn.
He was also stripped of his post as head of Brunei Investment Agency (BIA), which controls the overseas assets of the tiny sultanate on the northern tip of the south east Asian island of Borneo.
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After more than a year of self-imposed exile in Europe and the United States, Prince Jefri recently returned to Brunei.
Now his passport has been taken away and he has been barred from leaving the country.
He lives in a separate palace away from the one where Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah and his family stay. Most of his wives and children live overseas.
Details of Prince Jefri's assets are not yet known, and the court has asked him to declare them in two months.
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