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PETALING JAYA: The Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) said Tuesday it would “look into” the reported seizure of two Petronas subsidiaries by the descendants of the Sulu sultanate.

In a very brief statement, the AGC said it had been informed about the reported seizures and “we are looking into the matter”.

Meanwhile, lawyer Haniff Khatri Abdulla urged the AGC to immediately explain what happened and why.

He said Attorney-General (AG) Idrus Harun should clear the air on matters related to the arbitration, including legal measures that had been undertaken by, or were about to be undertaken by the AGC, either solely or jointly with Petronas, to safeguard Malaysia’s sovereignty.

He also said the AG should state the status of proceedings or the final decision on the Malaysian government’s application in the Madrid High Court regarding the matter. The Government had earlier said it did not recognise the claims and proceedings of the arbitration court in Paris.

Law Minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar had told the Dewan Rakyat in March that the appointment of Spanish arbitrator Gonzalo Stampa had been revoked and was no longer valid.

The arbitration was initiated in Madrid, Spain, but after the appointment of Stampa was revoked, the Sulu claimants took the matter to a French court which recognised the award. The Government said in March that it had applied to the court in France to set aside the award and bar its enforcement by the claimants.

Earlier, it was reported that two Petronas subsidiaries in Azerbaijan had been seized by bailiffs after a French arbitration court ruled in March that Malaysia had to pay the descendants of the Sultan of Sulu at least RM62.59 billion.

The Financial Times reported that the move to seize Petronas’ Luxembourg-registered subsidiaries, Petronas Azerbaijan (Shah Deniz) and Petronas South Caucasus, was part of legal efforts launched in 2017 by the heirs to receive compensation for land in Sabah they said their ancestor leased to a British trading company in 1878.

The British daily reported that bailiffs in Luxembourg seized the holding companies, estimated to be worth more than RM8.87 billion, on behalf of their clients on Monday.

The dispute has its origin in the 1878 Deed of Cession between the then Sultan of Sulu, Sultan Jamal Al Alam, and Baron de Overbeck, the then maharaja of Sabah, and British North Borneo Company’s Alfred Dent.

Under the agreement, Jamal ceded sovereignty over large parts of Sabah to Dent and Overbeck, who agreed that they and their future heirs were to pay the heirs of the sultan 5,000 Mexican dollars annually.

In 1936, the last formally recognised Sultan of Sulu, Jamalul Kiram II, died without heirs, and payments temporarily ceased until North Borneo High Court chief justice Charles F Macaskie named nine court-appointed heirs in 1939.

Although Malaysia took over these payments when it became the successor of the agreement following Sabah’s independence and the formation of Malaysia in 1963, these payments – equivalent to RM5,300 – ceased in 2013 after the Lahad Datu incursion.