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PETALING JAYA: Descendants of the sultan of Sulu were “chased away” by a British court when they tried to start arbitration proceedings there against Malaysia, says former attorney-general Tommy Thomas.

Speaking at a legal forum, Thomas said the lawyers for the Sulu descendants had written to the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) to say that they had tried to initiate the arbitration in Britain for their claim for billions of ringgit in compensation.

“When they first wrote to us, they did say that they tried to go to the UK and the UK chased them away. (The UK courts) received good legal advice from the UK’s foreign ministry,” he said.

“The UK said, ‘We have nothing to do with this, go to the courts of Malaysia’.”

He accused the Sulu heirs and their Spanish arbitrator, Gonzalo Stampa, of “classic forum shopping” and of having acted unlawfully and unreasonably by seeking a judgement in Spain and then in France.

Speaking at an online forum of the Kuala Lumpur Bar Committee and Sabah Law Society today, Thomas said the letter to Malaysia’s AGC was written when the heirs were seeking to commence the arbitration in Spain.

He said the Kota Kinabalu High Court in 2020 had ruled that Malaysian courts, and not Spanish courts, should resolve disputes arising from a 1878 deed by which the Sulu sultan relinquished sovereignty over what is now Sabah.

Thomas acknowledged that the Kota Kinabalu court ruling was not enforceable abroad and the AGC sought a similar judgment in Madrid, Spain.

“The Madrid court was hearing Malaysia’s version (of events) for the first time, and the Madrid court agreed with us and set aside everything, which is why Stampa then had to go to France.

“It’s classic forum shopping and it’s a disgrace to the legal profession that they have done this.”

In February, a French arbitration court recorded arbitrator Stampa’s decision that Malaysia must pay at least RM62.59 billion (US$14.92 billion) to the descendants of the last Sulu sultan for violating the 1878 agreements.

Thomas said the arbitration should have gone to the British courts because the 1878 agreement involved the British North Borneo Company.