2 Petronas subsidiaries reportedly seized by Sulu sultan’s heirs
Malaysia stopped paying the sultan of Sulu’s heirs their annual compensation after the 2013 Lahad Datu incursion. (Reuters pic)
PETALING JAYA: Two Petronas subsidiaries in Azerbaijan have reportedly been seized by bailiffs after a French arbitration court ruled in March that Malaysia has to pay the descendants of the sultan of Sulu at least RM62.59 billion.
The Financial Times reported that the move to seize Petronas’ Luxembourg-registered subsidiaries, Petronas Azerbaijan (Shah Deniz) and Petronas South Caucasus, is part of legal efforts launched in 2017 by the heirs to receive compensation over land in Sabah they said their ancestor leased to a British trading company in 1878.
The British daily reported that bailiffs in Luxembourg seized the holding companies, estimated to be worth more than RM8.87 billion, on behalf of their clients on Monday.
FMT has reached out to Petronas for comment.
“This case is the history of colonialism,” said the heirs’ lawyer, Elisabeth Mason, in the Financial Times report.
“Unlike so many dispossessed, our clients have an ongoing contract since 1878 and, as such, have a path to justice where many others did not.”
The dispute has its origin in the 1878 Deed of Cession between the then sultan of Sulu, Sultan Jamal Al Alam, and Baron de Overbeck, the then maharaja of Sabah, and British North Borneo Company’s Alfred Dent.
Under the agreement, Jamal ceded sovereignty over large parts of Sabah to Dent and Overbeck, who agreed that they and their future heirs were to pay the heirs of the sultan 5,000 Mexican dollars annually.
In 1936, the last formally recognised sultan of Sulu, Jamalul Kiram II, died without heirs, and payments temporarily ceased until North Borneo High Court chief justice Charles F Macaskie named nine court-appointed heirs in 1939.
Although Malaysia took over these payments when it became the successor of the agreement following Sabah’s independence and the formation of Malaysia in 1963, these payments – equivalent to RM5,300 – ceased in 2013 after the Lahad Datu incursion.
The government does not recognise the claims and proceedings of the arbitration court in Paris, with law minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar telling the Dewan Rakyat in March that the appointment of Spanish arbitrator Gonzalo Stampa had been revoked and was no longer valid.
PETALING JAYA: Two Petronas subsidiaries in Azerbaijan have reportedly been seized by bailiffs after a French arbitration court ruled in March that Malaysia has to pay the descendants of the sultan of Sulu at least RM62.59 billion.
The Financial Times reported that the move to seize Petronas’ Luxembourg-registered subsidiaries, Petronas Azerbaijan (Shah Deniz) and Petronas South Caucasus, is part of legal efforts launched in 2017 by the heirs to receive compensation over land in Sabah they said their ancestor leased to a British trading company in 1878.
The British daily reported that bailiffs in Luxembourg seized the holding companies, estimated to be worth more than RM8.87 billion, on behalf of their clients on Monday.
FMT has reached out to Petronas for comment.
“This case is the history of colonialism,” said the heirs’ lawyer, Elisabeth Mason, in the Financial Times report.
“Unlike so many dispossessed, our clients have an ongoing contract since 1878 and, as such, have a path to justice where many others did not.”
The dispute has its origin in the 1878 Deed of Cession between the then sultan of Sulu, Sultan Jamal Al Alam, and Baron de Overbeck, the then maharaja of Sabah, and British North Borneo Company’s Alfred Dent.
Under the agreement, Jamal ceded sovereignty over large parts of Sabah to Dent and Overbeck, who agreed that they and their future heirs were to pay the heirs of the sultan 5,000 Mexican dollars annually.
In 1936, the last formally recognised sultan of Sulu, Jamalul Kiram II, died without heirs, and payments temporarily ceased until North Borneo High Court chief justice Charles F Macaskie named nine court-appointed heirs in 1939.
Although Malaysia took over these payments when it became the successor of the agreement following Sabah’s independence and the formation of Malaysia in 1963, these payments – equivalent to RM5,300 – ceased in 2013 after the Lahad Datu incursion.
The government does not recognise the claims and proceedings of the arbitration court in Paris, with law minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar telling the Dewan Rakyat in March that the appointment of Spanish arbitrator Gonzalo Stampa had been revoked and was no longer valid.
Who was the PM responsible in 2013 ?
ReplyDeleteIf it is Mahathir, you would be all over excoriating him.
Who was the PM responsible in 2013 ?