Descendants of the Sulu king sued Malaysia first in France and then in the Netherlands; Photo: File
The Hague: Malaysia won a case in the Netherlands court to pay the descendants of the former Sultan of the Philippines $14.9 billion.
According to the World News Agency, Sultan Sulu’s empire in the 19th century extended to the southern Philippines as well as the part of Sabah in Malaysia. The case against Malaysia was taken to the Hague Court of Appeal by the descendants of the Sulu king.
The oil-rich region of Sabah came under the control of European colonial powers in 1878 under a treaty that provided the Sultan of Sulu and his descendants with an annual stipend of $100,000. Since its establishment in 1963, Malaysia has been awarding this scholarship to the descendants of the Sulu King.
However, Malaysia stopped making these payments to descendants of the former king after a bloody attack in the Sulu Peninsula of Sabah in 2013. Sabah is also claimed by the Philippines.
After the payments stopped, eight of the Sultan’s heirs filed a claim against Malaysia for the stipend in a French court.
In its ruling last year, a French arbitration court ordered Malaysia to pay $14.9 billion in arrears to the king’s descendants.
However, Malaysia later filed an appeal against the decision, which stayed the implementation of the decision.
Descendants of the former sultan Sulu appealed the French court’s decision to the Netherlands Court of Appeal, arguing that the suspension of payment of money only applied to France. Since this was an international matter, the Dutch court should order Malaysia to pay the money here.
The complex legal battle between the two Asian countries Malaysia and the Philippines, which has been going on for years in the European courts, has finally been decided. The Dutch court ruled in favor of Malaysia.
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim described the decision as historic, saying that the decision had prevented any attempt by the claimants (the heirs of the Sulu Empire) to enforce their unjustified claims against the Malaysian government in the Netherlands.
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