A Dutch court has dismissed a bid by eight heirs of the former Sultanate of Sulu to enforce a US$15 billion arbitration award they won against the government of Malaysia.
Calling it a “landmark victory”, Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said the Court of Appeal in The Hague has refused to recognise the Final Award “in the sham and abusive arbitration” brought by the heirs.
“This decision has blocked any attempt by the claimants to enforce their illegitimate claims against the Government of Malaysia in the Netherlands,” Anwar said in a statement this evening.
“This verdict in the Court of Appeal is another landmark victory for the Government of Malaysia following the Paris Court of Appeal’s decision on June 6.
“The Government of Malaysia is confident that we are now closer than ever to completely nullifying the sham and abusive Final Award amounting to approximately US$15 billion issued by Dr Gonzalo Stampa, thus consigning the claimants’’ flawed claims to history.
“Malaysia trusts that today’s decision, combined with the recent decision of the Paris Court of Appeal, will put an end to the frivolous attempts of the claimants to enforce the purported Final Award in other jurisdictions.”
Anwar added that Malaysia has, to date, “stopped at nothing to protect our sovereignty, national security and national interest.”
He went on to express his gratitude to Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said, chair of the Special Secretariat and the Law and Institutional Reforms Minister, Foreign Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Zambry Abdul Kadir, Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil, Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail, Attorney-General Tan Sri Idrus Harun and other parties involved in the matter.
He added that the government would fight, by any means necessary, against the flagrant exploitation and abuse of the international arbitral system and take all actions to recover the costs for the public resources that Malaysia expended in dealing with these claims.
“The Government of Malaysia is confident that justice will prevail for the people of Malaysia,” he added.
The heirs were last year awarded RM15 billion by a Paris arbitration court in a long-running dispute with Malaysia over a colonial-era land deal.
The heirs had since sought to seize Malaysian government assets in France, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, in a bid to enforce the award.
Malaysia, however, did not participate in the arbitration as the Southeast Asian nation maintains the process was illegal. Malaysia obtained a stay on the award in France, but the ruling remains enforceable overseas under a United Nations treaty on arbitration.
This led to the heirs seeking permission from a Dutch court to enforce the award in the Netherlands.
