French court rejects Sulu heirs’ appeal in US$14.9 billion land dispute with Malaysia

The ruling ends the claimants’ years-long legal battle with Malaysia over a colonial-era land deal

Reading Time:1 minute

Malaysia’s law minister Azalina Othman Said described the French court’s ruling as a “historic victory”. Photo: Facebook/ybaos

Published: 2:30pm, 7 Nov 2024

France’s highest civil court on Wednesday rejected an appeal by the heirs of a former sultan who sought nearly US$15 billion from Malaysia’s government, drawing a line under a lengthy legal battle stemming from an 1878 land deal.

Malaysia’s law minister described the ruling as a “historic victory”, while Paul Cohen, a lawyer for the heirs, said they were disappointed by the decision as it made “no sense”.

Malaysia had been left stunned when the Filipino heirs of the last Sultan of Sulu won a US$14.9 billion award in a French arbitration court in 2022, prompting them to go after Malaysian assets.

But a Paris court later upheld the Malaysian government’s challenge against enforcing a partial award. The Cour de Cassation on Wednesday confirmed the decision, ruling that the award was inapplicable and void.

The 1878 deal signed between European colonists and the Sultan of Sulu for use of his territory, which spanned islands in the southern Philippines and parts of present-day Malaysia on Borneo island.

Independent Malaysia had paid a token sum annually to the sultan’s heirs to honour the agreement but stopped in 2013, after supporters of the former sultanate launched a bloody incursion to try to reclaim land from Malaysia.