PARIS – A court in Paris dismissed a bid by the self-styled descendants of the sultanate of Sulu to enforce an order to make Malaysia pay billions of dollars over their territorial claim.

The Paris Court of Appeal on March 14 ruled that Sulu claimants’ challenge to a stay order filed by Malaysia in April 2022 was “inadmissible”, Malaysia’s Special Sulu Secretariat said in a statement on Thursday. 

“Hence, the stay obtained by Malaysia on July 12, 2022, for the enforcement of the purported final award remains,” the secretariat said.

The dispute is linked to the Sulu heirs’ years-long claims to the Borneo state of Sabah.

A French Arbitration Court in Paris in 2022 ordered Malaysia to pay RM62.59 billion (S$19 billion) to the Sulu descendants over their claim.

The government filed an application to cancel the award in Paris, while Luxembourg court set aside the legal action payment, Malaysia said in January.

Earlier in March, Malaysia said it would bring the Sulu claimants before a court, after a territorial dispute between the two parties led to bailiffs appearing at the South-east Asian nation’s embassy and staff residences in Paris.

Last year’s stay order “serves to reinforce Malaysia’s position that the purported commercial arbitration instituted by the Sulu claimants is without legitimate basis and does affect Malaysia’s territorial sovereignty”, the secretariat said in the statement. BLOOMBERG