KOTA KINABALU: Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor has welcomed the final landmark judgment by the Supreme Court of the Netherlands in dismissing the appeal filed by the Sulu claimants, describing it as “very good news” for Sabah and Malaysia.
“The Supreme Court has ruled in favour of Malaysia, hence putting an end to the claim which Sabah has never recognised in the first place,” the Sabah Chief Minister said in a statement here on Saturday (Sept 7).
Hajiji also reaffirmed that Sabah’s sovereignty in Malaysia should not be doubted and challenged by anyone.
The Chief Minister was responding to the statement by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said that the decision by the Supreme Court of the Netherlands has closed the chapter on the claimant’s attempts to enforce illegitimate claims on Malaysia.
In a Facebook post on Friday (Sept 6), Azalina said the Supreme Court’s decision endorsed the decision of the Hague Court of Appeal on June 27, 2023, which upheld Malaysia’s challenge against the claimants’ application in the Netherlands to recognise and enforce the purported “Final Award”, rendered in Paris by Spanish arbitrator Dr Gonzalo Stampa on Feb 28, 2022.
Sulu claimants had in 2019 taken their case to Stampa to seek compensation for land in Sabah, which they claimed was leased by their ancestors to a British trading company in 1878.
On Feb 28, 2022, Stampa decided in their favour and the final award of US$14.9bil was issued illegally in a Paris arbitration court.
The award was issued by Stampa despite the prior annulment of his appointment as an arbitrator by a Spanish court in 2021.
The Sulu group then brought the case to the Paris court in France.
The Paris Court of Appeal in March last year, however, upheld the suspension order obtained by Malaysia against the enforcement of the final award.
In January this year, Stampa was sentenced to six months in jail for contempt of court and he was banned from practising as an arbitrator for one year.
