A French court has nullified a $14.9 billion claim against Malaysia by descendants of a former sultan in a long-running legal saga stemming from the 19th century, Kuala Lumpur said Wednesday.
Eight heirs of the sultan of Sulu, who once ruled over tropical islands that are now split between the Philippines and Malaysia, have filed for compensation after Kuala Lumpur in 2013 stopped annual payments that date back to a colonial-era lease agreement.
The dispute has been fought in European courts for years, and in 2022 an arbitration seated in France and presided over by Spanish lawyer Gonzalo Stampa ordered Malaysia to pay $14.9 billion.
Kuala Lumpur then appealed and the case has hit multiple snags, including a court ruling ordering Stampa to drop the complex legal battle.
On Wednesday, the Malaysian government's Sulu Special Secretariat War Room said that the Paris Court of Appeal "issued its decision, annulling in its entirety the... 'Final Award' rendered by Mr Gonzalo Stampa on 28 February, 2022".
The court "confirmed that Mr Stampa lacked jurisdiction to render the purported 'Final Award' because there was no valid arbitration agreement binding Malaysia," it said in a statement, adding that judges had also ordered the claimants to pay 200,000 euros (about $233,000) in legal costs.
AFP was unable to immediately obtain a copy of the court ruling.
Various European courts including in France and the Netherlands had already rejected a request by the sultan's descendants, who are from the Philippines, to have the 2022 decision enforced.
Malaysia said on Wednesday it hoped the latest ruling would put an end to litigation but "stands ready to continue its fight before any court".
The historic Sultanate of Sulu included areas in modern-day Malasyia's Sabah province, an oil-rich region of Borneo island.
Sabah fell under the control of European colonial powers in 1878 in an agreement that saw the sultan and his descendants receive annual payments equal to around $1,100 that Malaysia continued to make after it was formed in 1963.
Kuala Lumpur stopped the payments in 2013 after a bloody incursion from the Sulu archipelago into Sabah, where the Philippines has a long-dormant territorial claim.