Malaysia Wins Legal Battle Over $15-Billion Sulu Sultan Heirs Ruling
The government of Malaysia has scored a victory in the long-standing case of the Sulu Sultan's heirs in the Paris Court of Appeals earlier this week. It's another step toward the annulment of a prior ruling that awarded nearly $15 billion worth of Malaysian assets to the descendants of Jamalul Kiram II, the last Sultan of Sulu.
In the hearing last Tuesday, June 6, 2023, the court decided that the arbitral ruling that had ordered Malaysia to pay the eight apparent heirs of the Sulu Sultanate did not have any jurisdiction in the matter. The $14.9-billion sum had been the second-largest arbitration award on record. It will likely be annulled, according to the judge presiding over the case.
This was “a decisive victory in Malaysia’s ongoing pursuit of legal remedies, which Malaysia is confident will result in comprehensive defeat for the claimants and their funders," Malaysian Minister of Law Azalina Othman said.
The decision likely ends the peculiar legal case brought about by the self-claimed eight Filipino heirs of Jamalul Kiram II. As part of the enforcement of the ruling, the claimants had sought after three Malaysian government-owned properties in Paris and assets from the Malaysian state oil firm Petronas in Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
“The Filipino citizens have sought to do this by inventing a sham arbitration, first in Spain and then in France, to hide what is a sovereignty claim over the resources of one of Malaysia’s states: Sabah,” Robert G Volterra, a legal spokesperson for the Malaysian government, said in a statement. “The position is now clear: the courts of the country where Mr. Stampa staged the sham arbitration rejected it as illegitimate and have instructed the Filipino citizens to pay EUR100,000 in costs to Malaysia.”
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A Short History of the Case
In 1936, Sultan Jamalul Kiram II passed away without any heirs. This was when the controversy of who was the present heirs of the Sultan of Sulu started. Payments ceased until North Borneo High Court Chief Justice Charles F. Macaskie named nine court-appointed heirs in 1939.
A decade after his demise, the British Government annexed the leased territory, depriving the heirs of any claims to the land. Malaysia would take over the arrangement after gaining its independence from Britain, paying the sum to the descendants, who were now Philippine citizens.
Violence ensued in 2013 when 200 armed Filipino followers of a self-proclaimed heir, Jamalul Kiram III, arrived in Sabah to invade the territory. Roughly 60 people were reported dead before the group retreated.
In 2017, the heirs announced their intention for arbitration in Spain, initially looking at a possible $32.2-billion compensation. The Malaysian government responded two years later. It would offer to resume annual payments of 48,000 Malaysian ringgit in arrears and interest if the claimants chose to forgo the proceedings.
They would continue with the case and be awarded roughly half of their original figure. Spanish arbiter Gonzalo Stampa, however, stressed that the local courts did not have jurisdiction. This brought the dispute to France. Sampa, for his part, will be facing criminal prosecution, as well.
The Philippine government, nevertheless, still asserts that the British North Borneo Company’s agreement with Sulu should have been deferred to the Philippines, where Sulu is. Its legality is disputed even now.
