Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on December 10, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 20, 2026
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A French court has annulled the Sulu heirs' $15 billion claim against Malaysia, ending a colonial-era land dispute. The heirs plan to appeal.
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 10 (Reuters) - A French court has annulled a legal bid by the heirs of a former sultan who sought nearly $15 billion from Malaysia, drawing a line under a lengthy dispute that stems from a colonial-era land deal.
The Paris Court of Appeal annulled the heirs' bid in a verdict on Tuesday, and ordered that they pay 200,000 euros ($232,800) to Malaysia, the Malaysian government said in a statement on Wednesday after receiving the ruling from the court.
A lawyer for the heirs described the ruling as "disappointing" and said they would appeal.
"Malaysia trusts that this victory will put an end to all the baseless attempts from the so-called Sulu claimants to extort money and assets from the people of Malaysia," the government said in its statement.
COMPLEX DISPUTE HAS ROOTS IN 19TH CENTURY
Malaysia had been left stunned in 2022 when the Filipino heirs of the last Sultan of Sulu won a $14.9 billion award in a French arbitration court, prompting them to go after Malaysian assets.
But in November 2024, France's top civil court ruled in favour of Malaysia, rejecting an appeal from the heirs and confirming a lower tribunal's ruling to uphold the Malaysian government's challenge against enforcing a partial award.
European colonists had signed a deal with the Sultan of Sulu in 1878 for use of his territory, which spanned islands in the southern Philippines and parts of present-day Malaysia on Borneo island.
Independent Malaysia had paid a token sum annually to the sultan's heirs to honour the agreement but stopped in 2013, after supporters of the former sultanate launched a bloody incursion to try to reclaim land from Malaysia.
The heirs have maintained they had no involvement in the incursion and sought arbitration over the suspension of the payments.
A lawyer for the heirs, Paul Cohen, told Reuters on Wednesday that they would appeal the latest judgement, saying: "Malaysia... cannot change the sovereignty decisions that it has bought at such a price."
($1 = 0.8591 euros)
(Reporting by Danial AzharEditing by Gareth Jones)
A legal bid refers to an offer made in a court of law to seek a judgment or decision on a particular matter.
A colonial-era land deal refers to agreements made during colonial times regarding land ownership and usage, often involving indigenous populations.
A financial award is a sum of money granted by a court or tribunal as compensation for damages or losses.
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