Sulu heirs’ seizure bid foiled

KUALA LUMPUR: An attempt to seize three Paris properties owned by the Malaysian government has been foiled when the bailiffs were turned away by both French and Malaysian officials.

They had tried to enforce a seizure after descendants of the defunct Sulu sultanate won a US$14.9bil (RM66bil) award against Malaysia.

Reuters reported that the bailiffs tried to assess the properties on Monday after a court issued the seizure order in December.

However, French officials and Malaysians at the Paris embassy turned them away.

The Filipino heirs of the defunct sultanate are seeking to enforce the award granted to them by a French arbitration court last year.

Arbitrator Gonzalo Stampa gave the award to the Sulu descendants by moving the arbitration to France after being stopped by courts from hearing the case.

Malaysia, which did not take part in the arbitration, maintains the process was illegal and has obtained a stay on the ruling in France.

Stampa had granted the heirs’ request to seize three Malaysian government properties in Paris to settle a purported debt of €2.3mil (RM10.98mil), according to court documents shared by their lawyers with Reuters.

He further found that the properties, located in the 16th arrondissement (administrative district) near the Malaysian embassy in Paris, did not qualify as diplomatic premises, according to the court documents.

Unlike the embassy, they bore no official signage and were not subject to French tax exemptions, the judge said.

The award is enforceable globally against most Malaysian assets, aside from diplomatic premises, under a United Nations convention on arbitration.

The French bailiffs attempted to evaluate the three properties in preparation for a sale but were turned away.

The Paris properties are the third set of Malaysian assets that the heirs have publicly acknowledged going after.

Last month, Luxembourg court bailiffs issued fresh seizure orders for two PETRONAS companies – PETRONAS Azerbaijan and PETRONAS South Caucus – in a similar effort.

The company has said the heirs’ actions were baseless and that it will continue to defend its legal position.Malaysia has vowed to take all legal measures to protect its assets worldwide.

The dispute stems from a deal signed in 1878 between two European colonists and the Sultan of Sulu for use of his territory in present-day Malaysia – an agreement that independent Malaysia honoured until 2013, paying the monarch’s descendants a token sum annually.

Kuala Lumpur stopped the payments after a bloody incursion in 2013 by supporters of the former sultanate.

The heirs of the sultan, who once controlled a territory spanning rainforest-covered islands in the southern Philippines and parts of Borneo island, say they were not involved in the incursion and sought arbitration over the suspension of payments.