KOTA KINABALU: A self-proclaimed descendant of the defunct Sulu sultanate has accused the claimants in a Paris arbitration court case of not being the legitimate and rightful heirs to the Sulu lineage.

       Datu Mohammad Kudhar Sultan Kiram, who is based in Manila, claimed that the claimants, who were awarded US$14.92bil (RM62bil) by a Paris arbitration court, were just people out to make money.

       “The claimants in the said arbitration proceedings are not the legitimate heirs of the sultanate of Sulu,” he said in a statement issued on Feb 28, after Spanish arbitrator Gonzalo Stampa awarded the sum to eight claimants.

       Mohammad Kudar claimed that he was the son of Sultan Julaspi Kiram II, and his great-grandfather was Jamal Al-Alam, who signed a lease agreement with Baron Overbeck and Alfred Dent in 1878.

       He said since his father’s death, all his siblings had agreed to appoint him as the administrator of their father’s estates and assets.

       “The regional trial court in Manila has pronounced me as the court-appointed sole administrator of my late father’s assets and estates,” he said.

       “I hereby declare that I am not one of the claimants and do not participate in any way in the arbitration proceedings against the government of Malaysia,” he said.

       “I strongly oppose the said arbitration award as it is against my late father’s will,” he said, explaining that his father, who was in Kota Kinabalu in 1963, had signed and agreed to the formation of Malaysia.

       The Malaysian government does not recognise the arbitration award by Stampa, whose decision came amid superior courts in Spain and France issuing a suspension order on the case.

       Malaysia was not represented during arbitration proceedings in Paris.

       Spanish news portal La Información reported that Stampa had issued the award, ruling that the 1878 treaty was a commercial “international private lease agreement”.

       By not paying the cession money since 2013, he said Malaysia had breached the agreement and would have three months to pay up failing which interest would be charged if the decision was not accepted.

       According to the report, the sultan’s descendants’ initial claim was US$32.2bil (RM135bil). This comprised the unpaid cession money as well as how much they believe they are owed for the oil and gas found in the region.