MALAYSIA has filed a suit to set aside a French arbitration court’s decision to award heirs of the defunct Sulu Sultanate US$14.9 billion (RM62.59 billion) in compensation, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said today.

He said the suit was filed on March 3 in a court in Paris, France.

“This is to ensure that the ‘final award’ will not be enforced by the claimants and Malaysia will not have to pay a compensation of US$14.9 billion,” Ismail said in a statement.

“The government of Malaysia is committed to seeing this matter through thoroughly.

“Malaysia will not compromise an inch when it comes to protecting the sovereignty of the country and the position of Sabah in Malaysia, which will be defended for all time.”

In February, Spanish arbitrator Dr Gonzalo Stampa rendered the final award to the claimants over the alleged violation of the payments of RM5,300 cession money under the 1878 agreement entered by the then Sulu Sultan Sultan Mohamet Jamal Al Alam, Baron de Overbeck and Alfred Dent of the British North Borneo Company for Sabah, then known as North Borneo.

The court had ruled that Malaysia had violated the agreement after it stopped paying the descendants the annual RM5,300 cession money since 2013 following the Lahad Datu armed incursion.

Malaysia has however taken the stance that it will not recognise the French arbitration court’s ruling on the grounds that Malaysia is a sovereign state.

On June 29, 2021, at the request of the Malaysian government, the Madrid Court revoked the appointment of Stampa as the arbitrator, and all actions and decisions made by him are null and void.

On September 29, 2021, the French Court, unaware of the decision by the Madrid Court which had cancelled the appointment and the decision of Stampa, issued an exequatur order recognising the partial award on jurisdiction, dated May 25, 2020.

Based on the exequatur order, Stampa had moved the arbitration seat from Madrid to Paris to continue the arbitration proceedings.

On December 16, 2021, the French Court of Appeal allowed the Malaysian government’s application for a stay of the exequatur order issued on September 29, 2021 pending an appeal. – March 18, 2022.