UK court ‘chased away’ Sulu heirs, says ex-AG

KUALA LUMPUR: Former attorney-general Tommy Thomas said a British court “chased away” descendants of the Sultan of Sulu when they tried to start arbitration proceedings there against Malaysia.

Thomas said the lawyers for the Sulu descendants had written to the Attorney-General’s Chambers to say that they had tried to initiate the arbitration in Britain for their claim for billions of ringgit in compensation.

“When they first wrote to us, they did say that they tried to go to the UK and the UK chased them away. (The UK courts) received good legal advice from the UK’s foreign ministry,” he said at an online forum of the Kuala Lumpur Bar Committee and Sabah Law Society yesterday,

“The UK said, ‘We have nothing to do with this, go to the courts of Malaysia’.”

He accused the Sulu heirs and their Spanish arbitrator, Gonzalo Stampa, of “classic forum shopping” and of having acted unlawfully and unreasonably by seeking a judgement in Spain and then in France.

Thomas said the letter to Malaysia’s AG’s Chambers was written when the heirs were seeking to commence the arbitration in Spain.

He said the Kota Kinabalu High Court in 2020 had ruled that Malaysian courts, and not Spanish courts, should resolve disputes arising from a 1878 deed by which the Sulu sultan relinquished sovereignty over what is now Sabah.

Thomas acknowledged that the Kota Kinabalu court ruling was not enforceable abroad and the AGC sought a similar judgment in Madrid, Spain.

“The Madrid court was hearing Malaysia’s version (of events) for the first time, and the Madrid court agreed with us and set aside everything, which is why Stampa then had to go to France.

“It’s classic forum shopping and it’s a disgrace to the legal profession that they have done this.”

In February, a French arbitration court instructed Putrajaya to pay at least US$14.92 billion (RM62.59 billion) to the descendants of the last Sulu sultan.

Gonzalo ruled that Malaysia had violated the 1878 agreements 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.

Thomas said the arbitration should have gone to the British courts because the 1878 agreement involved the British North Borneo Company.

Speakinng at the same forum, political analyst Bunn Nagara said the 2013 Lahad Datu incursion gave Malaysia the right to stop paying the annual RM5,300 compensation to the heirs of the Sultan of Sulu.

The honorary research fellow at the Perak Academy said there was a “gentlemen’s agreement” in 1963 after the formation of Malaysia where it agreed to continue paying the annual compensation.

He also said the fact that the Sulu descendants had approached Malaysia at the time was proof that they did not know Malaysia was “duty-bound” to continue these payments.

Bunn told the webinar that the 1963 agreement came with the condition that the Sulu heirs did not harass Malaysia over their claims.

“In 2013, they harassed Malaysia in the most extreme way in a physical armed assault, killing people.

“Malaysia had the perfect right to stop the claims because they on their part had violated the agreement,” he said.

When they first wrote to us, they did say that they tried to go to the UK and the UK chased them away. (The UK courts) received good legal advice from the UK’s foreign ministry.

Tommy Thomas i