THE attorney-general and the Petronas legal team have been accused of negligence over the seizure of the national oil company’s assets by the purported heirs to the Sulu sultanate.

In a statement today, Kota Kinabalu MP Chan Foong Hin questioned why Putrajaya had allowed the country’s assets to be confiscated.

“How can the Malaysian government allow such a thing to happen to the country’s assets?

“Why was there no injunction or restraining order filed against the purported Sulu sultanate heirs from doing more malicious damage?

“What has been done since the last time when the arbitration order was obtained? What has been done to set aside the arbitration order? Nothing it seems!” Chan asked in a Facebook post today.

The DAP lawmaker said the whole situation smacked of sheer negligence by the country’s top lawyer and the Petronas legal team.

Earlier today, the Financial Times reported that bailiffs in Luxembourg had seized two Petronas subsidiaries in Azerbaijan as part of an ongoing dispute between heirs of the Sulu sultanate and the government of Malaysia.

According to the report, bailiffs took over the Luxembourg-registered offices of Petronas Azerbaijan (Shah Deniz) and Petronas South Caucasus – with an estimated net worth of nearly RM9 billion – as part of an ongoing dispute between the heirs and the government.

In March, a French court of arbitration ruled that Malaysia must pay the heirs RM62.6 billion for ceding Sabah to British interests in 1878, which were then later passed to Malaysia.

The government had been paying the heirs an annual stipend of RM5,300, but cancelled this payment following the Lahad Datu incursion in 2013.

The Malaysian Insight has reached out to Petronas and Wisma Putra, and is awaiting their response.

Shortly after the March ruling, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Parliament and Law) Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar told the Dewan Rakyat that Malaysia would not recognise the decision, given that the powers of arbitrator Gonzalo Stampa had been revoked.

Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah added that the government would be sending diplomatic notes to 168 countries, asking them to inform Wisma Putra if any similar claims were filed in their respective jurisdictions. – July 12, 2022.