Azalina: Sulu heirs 'fraudulently' claiming US$14.9b from Malaysia; helping them is a crime

KUALA LUMPUR, June 7 — The purported Sulu heirs who want Malaysia to pay them US$14.9 billion are actually “fraudulent” in their behaviour, and any Malaysians who try to help these Sulu claimants will be committing a crime against the country and the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, minister Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said said today.

Azalina, who chairs Malaysia’s special secretariat on the Sulu case, said Malaysia had stopped the annual payment of RM5,300 to the now-defunct Sulu sultanate, because of an intrusion to Lahad Datu, Sabah in 2013 by armed men linked to a self-proclaimed Sulu sultan.

“Suddenly there was terrorism with weapons, many deaths happened. Can’t be that we want to continue payment,” she said in a press conference today at the World Trade Centre here.

“Any Malaysian who is responsible to help will be viewed as an enemy of the country, because under our laws, especially in the Penal Code, such characteristics are seen as going against the country’s sovereignty and opposing the leadership and power of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong. It’s an offence against the state, it’s an offence against the King and country.

“I want to remind, this is not an intimidation, but to remind Malaysians, this is a serious attack against the country’s sovereignty, although not from the element of weapons, but from the element of bankrupting Malaysia with the award,” she said, referring to the US$14.9 billion arbitration award which the Sulu claimants want to enforce against Malaysia.

Today, Azalina accused the eight Sulu claimants and their funder Therium of trying to make money from Malaysia by going for arbitration, asserting that the purported Sulu heirs were wrong to pursue arbitration against Malaysia.

Azalina said the Paris Court of Appeal’s decision in favour of Malaysia yesterday had recognised that there was no commercial arbitration clause in the 1878 agreement —between the then Sulu sultan and a British company’s representatives — to enable arbitration in the Sulu claimants’ case.

Azalina said this meant that arbitration was the wrong platform for the Sulu claimants, pointing out that the concept of arbitration did not even exist in the year 1878.

Azalina said the Sulu claimants should go to the international courts if they believe they have a claim against Malaysia, instead of going for commercial arbitration which she described as being done with the intention to make profits.

In the Sulu claimants’ case, a Spanish court had appointed Gonzalo Stampa as the arbitrator, but later cancelled his appointment as arbitrator.

Despite Spain cancelling his appointment as arbitrator for the case, Stampa transferred the entire arbitration to France and decided to continue the arbitration before awarding US$14.9 billion to the Sulu claimants on February 28, 2022.

The Sulu claimants then tried to enforce the US$14.9 billion arbitration award by making attempts to seize assets belonging to Malaysia and Malaysian entities in France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

None of the assets have been seized, and Malaysia is still fighting through the courts to prevent such asset seizures and to prevent the US$14.9 billion award from being recognised or having any legal effect in those countries.

(Azalina today said the next court decision expected would be on June 27 in the Netherlands, while another court matter is expected in September in Luxembourg. These court dates are believed to be linked to Malaysia’s efforts to stop the US$14.9 billion from being enforced.)

Azalina today questioned the behaviour of the Sulu claimants by “forum shopping”, or jumping from country to country to see which country would allow them to enforce the US$14.9 billion award to seize assets.

“They are jumping to execute, their assumption is Malaysia got assets all over the world, let’s attack Malaysia. Now if they are really honest or transparent, and being accountable, you have to settle in Spain first,” the minister in charge of law and institutional reform said, also accusing them of abusing the process of law.

Even while Malaysia was challenging the validity of the arbitration process and decisions in Spain and even while Spain itself is still conducting a criminal inquiry on the arbitrator, Azalina said the Sulu claimants had shifted to other countries instead of waiting for the disputes in Spain to be settled first.

“They are not waiting for that outcome; they are jumping to another forum. The fact that they are jumping, what does that tell you? So there must be a process of unclean hands. If you are really sincere in your claim, and you are so clear, your conscience tells you my claim is legitimate, I’ve got entitlement, this is the amount that I want, let the Spain jurisdiction sort it out. Why do you jump?” she said.

While it may be a common strategy in commercial arbitration to jump from countries to countries, Azalina said the Sulu claimants cannot use the arbitration process against Malaysia, as it is not a company but a sovereign country. She again said there is no arbitration clause in the 1878 document which would allow the Sulu claimants to pursue arbitration against Malaysia.

“By right, the right way is to sort out Spain first, and leave the other countries alone. Why do you want to execute on an award and the award is questionable. So it’s not a Sulu award, I keep calling it a Sulu fraud, because only fraudulent people will do this, they jump from country to country to avoid the main thrust of the question,” she said, also describing the case as a matter of “commercial fraud”.

Azalina also said the Paris Court of Appeal yesterday ordered the Sulu claimants to pay €100,000 in costs to Malaysia.

Azalina said Malaysia is going all out to make sure the truth about the Sulu case is told to the world, and that it would sue to recover the costs paid for Malaysia’s fight against the US$14.9 billion claim.