KUALA LUMPUR, March 9 (Bernama) — Malaysia rejects what it terms as frivolous claims by the self-styled group, United Tausug Citizens (UTC), which claim to be the \u201crightful custodians of the Sultanate of Sulu Territory\u201d over the state of Sabah, says Minister in the Prime Minister\u2019s Department (Law and Institutional Reform), Azalina Othman Said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She said UTC, had requested the Malaysian government for immediate payment of US$15 billion in what they dubbed as “Cession Money\u201d and sought recognition of UTC as \u201ca sovereign and independent State Kingdom\u201d as well as threatening to commence legal action against Malaysia in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis represents the latest frivolous and baseless attempt by a group to claim sovereignty over Malaysian territory and to extort unfounded payments from Malaysia,\u201d she said in a statement today<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Azalina also highlighted that Malaysia is successfully defeating across Europe a similar attempt by the self-proclaimed heirs of Sultan Jamalul Kiram II based on a fraudulent arbitration award issued by rogue arbitrator Dr Gonzalo Stampa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Sulu Sultanate has been defunct for several decades and is not recognised by any sovereign State or international organisation,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Moreover, she highlighted the recent conviction of Dr Gonzalo Stampa by a Madrid Criminal Court to six months imprisonment and one-year disqualification from practising as an arbitrator confirms the criminal abuse of the arbitral processes and gross injustices suffered by Malaysia as a result of the so-called Sulu case. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
She reaffirmed Malaysia’s steadfast stance on Sabah, stressing that the Malaysian government has once again emphasised that the exercise of self determination by Sabah to become part of Malaysia has been a settled legal fact since decolonisation in 1963. Since then, Sabah has been an integral part of Malaysia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In light of these developments, the minister underscored that the international commercial arbitration system is an important mechanism within global dispute resolution and it must be protected from such illegitimate attempts to extort sovereign States under the guise of arbitration claims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Government of Malaysia is actively looking at all possible legal remedies against any frivolous claims to defend its sovereignty, security and interests at all times,\u201d she stressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
— BERNAMA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KUALA LUMPUR, March 9 (Bernama) — Malaysia rejects what it terms as frivolous claims by the self-styled group, United Tausug Citizens (UTC), which claim to be the \u201crightful custodians of the Sultanate of Sulu Territory\u201d over the state of Sabah, says Minister in the Prime Minister\u2019s Department (Law and Institutional Reform), Azalina Othman Said. She said UTC, had requested […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":238308,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[288,286,318,194],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257243"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=257243"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":257244,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257243\/revisions\/257244"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/238308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=257243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=257243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=257243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}