The Mindanao Examiner Regional Newspaper
Sabah and Sulu sultan heirs continues battle anew
ZAMBOANGA CITY - A Spanish court has set December 11 for the next mention in the case against arbitrator Gonzalo Stampa, who had ordered Putrajaya to pay compensation to the self-proclaimed descendants of the last Sultan of Sulu.
This comes after Stampa allegedly defied a Madrid court order in 2019, said Law and Institutional Reform Minister Azalina Othman Said.
Azalina said the claimants had filed an appeal on September 27 against The Hague Court of Appeal’s landmark judgment which had dismissed their bid to enforce a US$15 billion (RM71.78 billion) arbitration award against the Malaysian government.
“The Malaysian government has, and is, aggressively taking action to challenge and end the claims by the supposed heirs to the Sulu sultanate,” she said in a written parliamentary reply to Sim Tze Tzin (Pnbayan Baru) who asked for updates on the case.
Sim also asked if the proposed State Immunity Bill will guarantee the country’s sovereign immunity, to which she said the government is currently in the final stages of drafting the law.
In February 2022, a French arbitration court, presided over by Stampa, had instructed Putrajaya to pay US$14.92 billion to the purported descendants of the last Sultan of Sulu.
Stampa ruled that Malaysia had violated the 1878 agreement between the old Sulu kingdom in the Philippines and a representative of the British North Borneo Company that used to administer what is now
Sabah.
Malaysia then challenged the arbitration order in France and Spain.
A French court granted a stay order on the award, pending a decision on Malaysia’s claim that the order infringed on its sovereignty over Sabah.
A Spanish court earlier this year annulled Stampa’s appointment. He was charged with continuing to hear the arbitration of the Sulu case despite a Madrid court’s decision to annul his original appointment as an arbitrator.
Malaysia previously hailed a French court decision setting aside the US$15 billion award in a case brought by eight heirs of the Sultan of Sulu regarding territorial claims related to the mineral-rich Sabah in Borneo.
Azalina said the court’s decision meant that the claimants could not rely on the award in France for any purpose. “The Paris Court of Appeal found that the arbitrator wrongly upheld his jurisdiction. This decision, which is final and binding, is a decisive victory for Malaysia in its ongoing pursuit of legal remedies, which Malaysia is confident will result in comprehensive defeat for the claimants and their funders,” she said.
The heirs Malaysia identified the eight descendants of the Sultan Jamalul Kiram as Sultan Muhammad Fuad Kiram I, Nurhima Kiram Fornan, Sheramar Kiram, Permaisuli Kiram-guerzon, Taj-mahal Kiram-tarsum Nuqui, Ahmad Nazard Kiram Sampang, Jenny KA Sampang, and Widz-raunda Kiram Sampang.
Lawyer
Paul
Cohen, the legal counsel of the heirs of the Sultan of Sulu, sent a letter in May this year to the Attorney-general's Chambers and demanded immediate payment of the purported Final Award of US$16.412 billion. The Special Secretariat on Sulu Claims had condemned the letter, but the Attorney-general subsequently responded to Cohen’s letter on May 31, listing all the indisputable facts of the claim.
It added that Malaysia had, on December 14, 2021, filed a criminal complaint before the Spanish Public Prosecutor against Stampa following the blatant disregard to the judicial decisions in Spain by the latter and the claimants. The report said the claimants have attempted to arbitrate this non-commercial matter in a few European countries, namely France, Spain, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
There was no immediate statement from any of the eight Filipino heirs of the Sultan of Sulu, but sources told The Mindanao Examiner Regional Newspaper that only their lawyers were authorized to speak on their behalf. Sultanate of Sulu The Sultanate of Sulu, founded in 1457, continues to lay claim to Sabah which it obtained from Brunei as a gift for helping put down a rebellion on Borneo Island. The British leased Sabah and transferred control over the territory to Malaysia after the end of World War II. The Sulu Sultanate said it had merely leased North Borneo in 1878 to the British North Borneo Company for an annual payment of 5,000 Malayan dollars then, which was increased to 5,300 Malayan dollars in 1903.
The Sultanate of Sulu is believed to exist as a sovereign nation for at least 442 years. It stretches from a part of the island of Mindanao in the east, to Sabah, in the west and south, and to Palawan, in the north. But North Borneo was illegally annexed by Malaysia in 1963 following a referendum illegally organised by the Cobbold Commission in 1962, the people of Sabah voted overwhelmingly to join Malaysia. (bdnews24.com, Reuters, The Star and Mindanao Examiner)