THE HAGUE
\nMalaysia on Tuesday won a Dutch court case over a $14.9 billion award against the Southeast Asian nation that stems from a 19th century deal with a Philippine sultan.
\nThe verdict is part of a complex legal battle being fought in European courts that is rooted in Malaysia\u2019s colonial past, with territorial claims and potentially billions of dollars worth of state assets at stake.
\nDescendants of the Sultan of Sulu, who once ruled over the tropical islands that are part of the southern Philippines as well as Sabah in Malaysia, had taken the case to the Hague Appeals Court.
\nThey were asking Dutch judges to enforce a decision by a French court last year which ordered the $14.9 billion payout.
\n\u201cThe Hague Appeals Court today rejected the request of the Philippine nationals for the recognition and enforcement of the final arbitral award in the Netherlands,\u201d the Dutch court said in a statement.
\nMalaysia\u2019s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim welcomed the \u201clandmark\u201d decision.
\n\u201cThis decision has blocked any attempt by the claimants to enforce their illegitimate claims against the government of Malaysia in the Netherlands,\u201d the prime minister said in a statement.
\n\u201cWe are now closer than ever to completely nullifying the sham and abusive final award\u201d by the French court, he added.
\nOil-rich Sabah fell under the control of European colonial powers in 1878 in an agreement that saw the sultan and his descendants receive annual payments \u2014 the equivalent of around $1,100 \u2014 that Malaysia continued to make after it was formed in 1963.
\nKuala Lumpur stopped the payments in 2013 after a bloody incursion from the Sulu archipelago into Sabah, where the Philippines\u2019 has a long-dormant territorial claim.
\nEight heirs of the sultan have been pursuing a claim for compensation following the cessation of payments.
\nA French arbitration court last year awarded $14.9 billion against Malaysia, but a judge later issued a stay on the enforcement of the ruling while Kuala Lumpur appealed.
\nLawyers for the sultan\u2019s descendants had since petitioned The Hague Court of Appeal to allow the Paris decision to be enforced in the Netherlands, arguing the award was international and the suspension only applied to France.
\nBut the Dutch judges disagreed, saying the \u201carbitral award cannot be rendered\u201d including because of the French court\u2019s stay issued in the light of the Malaysian appeal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THE HAGUE Malaysia on Tuesday won a Dutch court case over a $14.9 billion award against the Southeast Asian nation that stems from a 19th century deal with a Philippine sultan. The verdict is part of a complex legal battle being fought in European courts that is rooted in Malaysia\u2019s colonial past, with territorial claims […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":340281,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-340247","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n