PETALING JAYA: A Spanish court has set Dec 11 for the next mention in the case against arbitrator Gonzalo Stampa, who had ordered Putrajaya to pay compensation to the self-proclaimed descendants of the last Sultan of Sulu.
This comes after Stampa allegedly defied a Madrid court order in 2019, law and institutional reform minister Azalina Othman Said said.
Azalina also said the claimants had filed an appeal on Sept 27 against The Hague Court of Appeal’s landmark judgment which had dismissed their bid to enforce a US$15 billion (RM71.78 billion) arbitration award against the Malaysian government.
“The Malaysian government has, and is, aggressively taking action to challenge and end the claims by the supposed heirs to the Sulu sultanate,” she said in a written parliamentary reply to Sim Tze Tzin (PN-Bayan Baru) who asked for updates on the case.
Sim also asked if the proposed State Immunity Bill will guarantee the country’s sovereign immunity, to which she said the government is currently in the final stages of drafting the law.
In February 2022, a French arbitration court, presided over by Stampa, had instructed Putrajaya to pay US$14.92 billion to the purported descendants of the last Sultan of Sulu.
Stampa ruled that Malaysia had violated the 1878 agreement between the old Sulu kingdom in the Philippines and a representative of the British North Borneo Company that used to administer what is now Sabah.
Malaysia then challenged the arbitration order in France and Spain.
A French court granted a stay order on the award, pending a decision on Malaysia’s claim that the order infringed on its sovereignty over Sabah.
A Spanish court earlier this year annulled Stampa’s appointment.
He was charged with continuing to hear the arbitration of the Sulu case despite a Madrid court’s decision to annul his original appointment as an arbitrator. - FMT
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