Malaysia challenges late sultan's heirs to try to lease part of the country

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia's law minister on Wednesday challenged a former sultan's heirs who lost a legal bid to obtain nearly $15 billion from the government over a land dispute to try leasing part of the country that they still claim rights to.

Earlier this month, France's top civil court rejected an appeal from the Filipino heirs of the last Sultan of Sulu after a lengthy legal battle stemming from a colonial-era land lease agreement.

The heirs had won a $14.9 billion award in a French arbitration court in 2022 but a Paris court later upheld the Malaysian government's challenge against enforcing a partial award. The Cour de Cassation confirmed the ruling.

The heirs' lawyer, Paul Cohen, subsequently said the ruling reinforced their rights to the territory, which spans islands in the southern Philippines and parts of present-day Malaysia on Borneo island, and that they could lease the land to other countries, including the Philippines.

Malaysia's Law Minister Azalina Othman Said dismissed Cohen's claims as "baseless" and said the heirs may try to lease the land, but would face legal action.

"Malaysia has been a sovereign and independent nation since 1957... so what he (Cohen) has said makes no sense to me," Azalina told reporters on Wednesday.

The dispute stemmed from a 1878 deal between European colonists and the Sultan of Sulu for use of his territory and present day Malaysia honoured the agreement after it gained independence from Britain.

Malaysia paid a token sum annually to the sultan's heirs to but stopped in 2013 following a bloody incursion by supporters of the former sultanate to reclaim land from Malaysia. The heirs then sought arbitration over what they said was a breach of the agreement.

(Reporting by Danial Azhar; Editing by Martin Petty)