After judgment of $15 billion.. Confiscation of three Malaysian properties in Paris
lawyers and the Malaysian government said that bailiffs tried to assess the property after a confiscation order issued by the court in December, but that Malaysian officials at the Paris embassy refused.
Shrouq
French bailiffs have tried to enforce an order to confiscate three Paris properties owned by the Malaysian government in a case linked to a $15 billion court ruling for the descendants of a former sultan.
According to Reuters, lawyers and the Malaysian government said that bailiffs tried to assess the property after a confiscation order issued by the court in December, but that Malaysian officials at the Paris embassy refused.
last Sultan of Sulu
The Filipino heirs of the last Sultan of Sulu, Jamal Karam II, are seeking to enforce $14.9 billion awarded by a French arbitration court last year to settle a dispute with the Malaysian government over a colonial-era land deal.
Malaysia, which did not participate in the arbitration, maintains that the process was illegal and has obtained a stay of arbitration in France.
Paris property
The Paris property is only the third set of Malaysian assets the heirs have publicly acknowledged being sought after.
They obtained a forfeiture order for the Luxembourg units of state oil company Petronas and sought permission from a Dutch court to seize assets in the Netherlands.
This award is globally enforceable against most Malaysian assets, regardless of diplomatic premises, under the United Nations Convention on Arbitration.
Settle a debt of € 2.3 million
Despite the stay, a French judge in December last year granted the heirs' request to seize three Malaysian government properties in Paris to settle a debt of € 2.3 million ($2.46 million) that they said was owed to them, according to court documents shared by the heirs' lawyers.
The seizure attempt in Paris has not been reported previously.
The lawyers said Malaysia was ordered to pay the heirs under a preliminary arbitration award awarded to them in Spain, which was under no obligation to remain in France.
Not qualify as diplomatic buildings
Malaysia's Law Ministry did not respond to a request for comment on the preliminary arbitration award.
The French judge also found that the properties located in the 16th arrondissement, near the Malaysian embassy in Paris, do not qualify as diplomatic buildings, according to court documents.
Unlike the embassy, the judge said, it did not carry official banners and was not subject to French tax exemptions.
In these regard, Jamal Karam III, former sultan of the Sulu region in the southern Philippines.
