Kota Kinabalu: Luxembourg court bailiffs issued fresh seizure orders for two units of Malaysian state oil firm Petronas this week, following a bid by descendants of a former sultanate to enforce a RM66 billion (US$15 billion) award they had won against Malaysia, Reuters reported.
The news agency, citing the heirs’ lawyer and sighted court documents, said the Filipino heirs of the last Sultan of Sulu are seeking to enforce a RM87.6 billion (US$14.9 billion) award granted to them by a French arbitration court last year, amid a long-running dispute with the Malaysian government over a colonial-era land deal.
Malaysia, which did not participate in the arbitration, maintained the process was illegal and obtained a stay on the award in France but the ruling remains enforceable overseas under a United Nations treaty on arbitration, according to the report.
Petronas has said it will contest any claims made on its assets and Malaysia has vowed to use all legal measures to prevent its assets, including state-linked companies, from being seized overseas.
The Petronas Azerbaijan (Shah Deniz) and Petronas South Caucasus units were first seized in July 2022, but the Malaysian government said last month that the order had been set aside by a Luxembourg district court.
On Tuesday, Luxembourg court bailiffs issued a second seizure order on the units and related bank accounts, court documents shared by the heirs’ lawyer, Paul Cohen, showed.
Cohen, of British law firm 4-5 Gray’s Inn Square, according to Reuters, said the Luxembourg district court had indeed lifted the first seizure order on a minor issue that has since been addressed, but had not made a judgment on the merits of the arbitration.
“There was a technical ruling that has now been effectively dealt with, and the freezing orders are once more in place on the Petronas assets in Luxembourg,” Reuters quoted him as saying via email.
The Luxembourg court could not be immediately reached for comment. Petronas and Malaysia’s law minister did not respond to requests for comment, said the news agency.
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