Singapore to respond to claim on Pulau Batu Puteh before June 14
PUTRAJAYA: Singapore is expected to respond before June 14 to a move by Malaysia to claim ownership of Pulau Batu Puteh .
Malaysia had on Feb 16 applied for a review of a ruling made in 2008 by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that the island belonged to Singapore.
Attorney-General Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali yesterday said Malaysia would respond accordingly once Singapore replied to the application.
“The review, done by five researchers in London, is doing fine,” he said after launching the 17th Asean Senior Law Officials Meeting.
“Researchers are working on this every day, but it will take some time as they need to go through thousands of documents from the archives.”
On Feb 16, Apandi announced that he would lead a seven-member team comprising local and foreign experts to seek a revision of the ruling.
This came two weeks after Malaysia filed an application to review the ICJ judgment following the discovery of new evidence.
Apandi had said Malaysia found evidence among some 3,000 documents, which were declassified by the British government in 2013.
He believed that his team and the latest evidence could transfer ownership of Pulau Batu Puteh to Malaysia.
The ICJ judgment in 2008 was centred on a 1953 letter by the colonial secretary in Johor to Singapore officials.
On another issue, Apandi said the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission was expected to wrap up investigations into the transfer of money from SRC International into Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s accounts within a month.
He said he had never ordered a halt to the investigations unless there was new evidence that warranted a file to be reopened.
He was commenting on media reports that SRC International had transferred RM42 million into Najib’s bank accounts via its subsidiaries between December 2014 and February 2015.
“I don’t know what the result (of the investigations) is, but my directive is to wrap it up. I will give further instruction.”
Apandi said none of the files, including on 1Malaysia Development Bhd, had been closed.