KUALA LUMPUR: There is a possibility that the Sulu claimants may target other commercial assets belonging to Malaysia after their seizure attempts on PETRONAS subsidiaries, says Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said (pic).
The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reforms) said the self-styled heirs of the Sulu sultanate “have tried everything” and were now using foreign legal avenues as a strategy to claim money from the government.
“They did not go to the ICJ (International Court of Justice). They went for commercial arbitration instead. We have to question that locus. Looks like they are using legal strategies,” she told reporters after a briefing with MPs in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday.
She also questioned the move of the claimants to bring the matter to a commercial court.
Azalina revealed that one of the eight claimants was a first cousin of one of the men who were sentenced to death for the 2013 Lahad Datu incursion.
Azalina will be visiting Sabah today to meet the Chief Minister to see whether the state government can assist in the matter.
She said the claimants did not submit their address in the first round of the case, but have now submitted one.
“We are trying to figure out who they are,” she said, adding that the matter had become more confusing as the claimants had been “jumping” from one jurisdiction to another.
On whether there is engagement from the Philippine government, she said it was not involved as it is a private matter.
She urged lawmakers to be united regardless of political divide in addressing this matter as it involves national sovereignty.
On Jan 26, the Luxembourg District Court set aside the attachment order over the asset seizure of two PETRONAS companies in Luxembourg that had been requested by the self-proclaimed heirs of the late Sulu Sultan.
On July 11, 2022, an attachment order was served to PETRONAS Azerbaijan (Shah Deniz) and PETRONAS South Caucasus by bailiffs representing the eight alleged Sulu heirs.
The French courts have stayed the enforcement of the purported “final award” rendered in France, pending the outcome of Malaysia’s action to set aside the final award.
Among the reasons that led to the recent claims by the self-proclaimed heirs of the Sulu Sultanate was that Putrajaya had stopped paying cession money to the heirs since 2013 following the incursion.
