From the Mindanao Examiner (Jun 27, 2023): Dutch court rules Sulu sultan's heirs cannot seize Malaysian assets
SULU - A Dutch court of appeal dismissed a bid by eight descendants of a former sultanate to enforce a $15-billion (RM69 billion) arbitration award they had won against the government of Malaysia, media reports said, citing a judgement released on the court website.
Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III reads The Mindanao Examiner Regional Newspaper in this file photo taken in 2013 following the incursion of dozens of followers led by his younger brother Agbimuddin Kiram. Both brothers died from natural causes.
This was also reported by the Bangladesh media bdnews24.com and Reuters. “The court dismisses the requests of the Filipino nationals” to demand to execute the arbitration award, the judgement said.
Last year, the Filipino heirs to the last sultan of the remote Philippine region of Sulu were awarded $14.9 billion by a Paris arbitration court in a long-running dispute with Malaysia over a colonial-era land deal.
They have since sought to seize Malaysian government assets in France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, in a bid to enforce the award. Malaysia, which did not participate in the arbitration, maintains the process is illegal and has vowed to fight the seizures. It obtained a stay on the award in France but the ruling remains enforceable overseas under a UN treaty on arbitration.
The heirs in September had sought permission from a Dutch court to enforce the award in the Netherlands, Reuters reported. However, Dutch judges sided with Malaysia and said that the original agreement did not have a clause that bound parties to arbitration and the French stay of the award meant the claim was not enforceable in the Netherlands.
French court hailed
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.
Malaysian media quoted Minister Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said, of the Prime Minister's Department (Law and Institutional Reform) as saying that the Paris Court of Appeal ruled on June 6, that the arbitration court, which mandated Kuala Lumpur to pay the sum to the heirs of the Sultan of Sulu, the former rulers of the region, lacked jurisdiction in the case.
“The Paris Court of Appeal had upheld Malaysia's challenge against the partial award rendered on May 25, 2020 by Dr Gonzalo Stampa in the case brought by eight claimants, citizens of the Philippines, who are purported heirs of the long-defunct Sultan of Sulu,” Azalina said.
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.
Azalina also said that the Sulu claimants had previously targeted Malaysia's diplomatic assets in France based on this partial award as part of their abusive strategy, which now had to be withdrawn following the court's decision. “This decision implies that the Paris Court of Appeal will annul the purported Final Award in which Stampa remarkably awarded the claimants close to US$15 billion. Malaysia is seeking to have the annulment recorded in a court decision as soon as possible, which should lead to the collapse of the claimants' global enforcement efforts to date,” she said.
She added that Stampa had issued the Final Award despite his appointment having been annulled by the same Spanish court that had previously appointed him on the basis that Malaysia had not been properly served ahead of that appointment process. “In defiance of Spanish court orders instructing him to cease acting as arbitrator, in an unprecedented move, Stampa transferred the arbitration proceedings to France and issued his Final Award. Stampa's sustained actions in defiance of Spanish court orders have resulted in a significant abuse of the international arbitration process,” Azalina said.
Azalina said the decision would also put an end to the efforts of the claimants and their funder, Therium, to enforce the unlawful awards and thereby extract windfall damages from Malaysia. She also added that the government would continue to take all necessary actions, including legal actions, to put an end to the claims and to ensure that Malaysia's interests, sovereign immunity and sovereignty were protected at all times.
Lawyer Paul Cohen, the legal counsel of the heirs of the Sultan of Sulu, sent a letter in May 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, Mindanao Examiner)
https://mindanaoexaminernewspaper.blogspot.com/2023/06/dutch-court-rules-sulu-sultans-heirs.html
This was also reported by the Bangladesh media bdnews24.com and Reuters. “The court dismisses the requests of the Filipino nationals” to demand to execute the arbitration award, the judgement said.
Last year, the Filipino heirs to the last sultan of the remote Philippine region of Sulu were awarded $14.9 billion by a Paris arbitration court in a long-running dispute with Malaysia over a colonial-era land deal.
They have since sought to seize Malaysian government assets in France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, in a bid to enforce the award. Malaysia, which did not participate in the arbitration, maintains the process is illegal and has vowed to fight the seizures. It obtained a stay on the award in France but the ruling remains enforceable overseas under a UN treaty on arbitration.
The heirs in September had sought permission from a Dutch court to enforce the award in the Netherlands, Reuters reported. However, Dutch judges sided with Malaysia and said that the original agreement did not have a clause that bound parties to arbitration and the French stay of the award meant the claim was not enforceable in the Netherlands.
French court hailed
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.
Malaysian media quoted Minister Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said, of the Prime Minister's Department (Law and Institutional Reform) as saying that the Paris Court of Appeal ruled on June 6, that the arbitration court, which mandated Kuala Lumpur to pay the sum to the heirs of the Sultan of Sulu, the former rulers of the region, lacked jurisdiction in the case.
“The Paris Court of Appeal had upheld Malaysia's challenge against the partial award rendered on May 25, 2020 by Dr Gonzalo Stampa in the case brought by eight claimants, citizens of the Philippines, who are purported heirs of the long-defunct Sultan of Sulu,” Azalina said.
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.
Azalina also said that the Sulu claimants had previously targeted Malaysia's diplomatic assets in France based on this partial award as part of their abusive strategy, which now had to be withdrawn following the court's decision. “This decision implies that the Paris Court of Appeal will annul the purported Final Award in which Stampa remarkably awarded the claimants close to US$15 billion. Malaysia is seeking to have the annulment recorded in a court decision as soon as possible, which should lead to the collapse of the claimants' global enforcement efforts to date,” she said.
She added that Stampa had issued the Final Award despite his appointment having been annulled by the same Spanish court that had previously appointed him on the basis that Malaysia had not been properly served ahead of that appointment process. “In defiance of Spanish court orders instructing him to cease acting as arbitrator, in an unprecedented move, Stampa transferred the arbitration proceedings to France and issued his Final Award. Stampa's sustained actions in defiance of Spanish court orders have resulted in a significant abuse of the international arbitration process,” Azalina said.
Azalina said the decision would also put an end to the efforts of the claimants and their funder, Therium, to enforce the unlawful awards and thereby extract windfall damages from Malaysia. She also added that the government would continue to take all necessary actions, including legal actions, to put an end to the claims and to ensure that Malaysia's interests, sovereign immunity and sovereignty were protected at all times.
Lawyer Paul Cohen, the legal counsel of the heirs of the Sultan of Sulu, sent a letter in May 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, Mindanao Examiner)
https://mindanaoexaminernewspaper.blogspot.com/2023/06/dutch-court-rules-sulu-sultans-heirs.html
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