© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Jamalul Kiram III, former sultan of the Sulu region of the southern Philippines, sits surrounded by photographers during a brief press conference in front of the Blue Mosque in the city of Taguig, south of Manila, on June 22. February 2013. REUTERS/Romeo Rano
By Rozanna Latiff
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – French bailiffs tried to enforce a warrant to seize three Malaysian government-owned properties in Paris in a case involving a $15 billion court award to the descendants of a former sultan, lawyers say of the heirs and judicial documents seen. by Reuters.
Bailiffs tried to assess the properties on Monday following a seizure warrant issued by a court in December, but Malaysian officials at the Paris embassy turned them away, lawyers and the Malaysian government said.
The Filipino heirs to the last Sultan of Sulu are seeking to enforce a $14.9 billion award they were awarded by a French court of arbitration last year to settle a dispute with the Malaysian government over a colonial-era land deal.
Malaysia, which did not participate in the arbitration, maintains that the process was illegal and obtained a stay of judgment in France.
The Paris properties are only the third set of Malaysian assets the heirs have publicly acknowledged they are after. They obtained a seizure order for the Luxembourg units of the state oil company Petronas and sought permission from a Dutch court to seize assets in the Netherlands.
The award is applicable globally against most of Malaysia’s assets, apart from diplomatic facilities, under a UN arbitration convention.
Despite the suspension, a French judge agreed in December last year to the heirs’ request to seize three Malaysian government properties in Paris to settle a debt of 2.3 million euros ($2.46 million). which they said they were owed, according to court documents shared by attorneys for the heirs.
The attempted seizure in Paris has not been previously reported.
Malaysia was ordered to pay the heirs the sum under a preliminary arbitration award made to them in Spain, which was not bound by the stay in France, the lawyers said.
Malaysia’s Ministry of Justice did not respond to a request for comment on the preliminary award.
The French judge also ruled that the properties, located in the 16th arrondissement near the Malaysian embassy in Paris, did not qualify as diplomatic premises, according to court documents.
Unlike the embassy, they had no official signs and were not subject to French tax breaks, the judge said.
French bailiffs on Monday tried to assess the three properties to prepare for a sale, lawyers said. The proceeds of the sale would go to the heirs.
A spokesman for the Malaysian Ministry of Justice said bailiffs appeared at the Malaysian embassy in Paris but were turned away. They declined to comment further. Malaysia’s foreign ministry and its embassy in Paris declined to comment.
Reuters could not establish whether sheriffs attempted to enter the three properties subject to the seizure order.
Paul Cohen, a lawyer for the heirs, said the court order was “unequivocal” in its directive to seize the properties and that it would be up to the court to decide next steps.
“To the extent that the Malaysians have blocked the bailiffs from entering, they are in open defiance of a French court order,” Cohen said.
The Malaysian government and the French court, the Tribunal Judiciaire de Paris, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Last month, Luxembourg court bailiffs issued new seizure orders for two Petronas units in a similar effort. The company has said that the actions of the heirs were unfounded and that it will continue to defend its legal position.
Malaysia previously committed to taking all legal steps to protect its assets around the world.
The dispute stems from an agreement signed in 1878 between two European settlers and the Sultan of Sulu for the use of their territory in present-day Malaysia, an agreement that independent Malaysia respected until 2013, paying the monarch’s descendants a token annual sum. .
Kuala Lumpur halted payments after a bloody 2013 raid by supporters of the former sultanate who wanted to reclaim land from Malaysia. The sultan’s heirs, who once controlled territory spanning rainforest-clad islands in the southern Philippines and parts of the island of Borneo, say they were not involved in the raid and have sought arbitration over the default.
($1 = 0.9363 euros)
