KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said has dared the lead lawyer for the so-called heirs of the defunct Sulu sultanate to have a go at trying to lease Sabah out to other parties.
The minister in the Prime Minister's Department (law and institutional reform) said any attempt to undermine Malaysia's sovereignty over Sabah would be met with a determined legal response.
She dismissed as "groundless" the claims of lawyer Paul Cohen that a recent French Supreme Court decision essentially meant Sabah still "belongs" to the sultanate and that the "heirs" were now free to lease to any other country.
"Try it. Let him (Cohen) say what he wants. Malaysia has been a sovereign and independent nation since 1957, and the Cobbold Commission and referendum affirmed Sabah's status as part of Malaysia.
"So he's talking about things that don't make sense to me, but as a lawyer, he has the right to say so if he believes his clients have rights.
"That's his statement. But my response is: go ahead, try. We will fight back," she told reporters after attending the KL Forum On International Arbitration 2024 launching ceremony.
Cohen had told the New Straits Times that his clients could now lease Sabah to other nations, including the Philippines, China and Brunei.
He said this was following the French Supreme Court's dismissal of a challenge to an earlier ruling against the "Final Award" of nearly US$15 billion granted to his clients by Spanish arbitrator Dr Gonzalo Stampa.
Meanwhile, Azalina also hinted at the possibility of Malaysia seeking compensation from the heirs for the extensive legal expenses incurred in the ongoing legal battle.
"Once this case is settled, we'll have to decide whether the Malaysian government will demand reimbursement from them for all the expenses — the people's money spent on lawyers, on court fees, on everything involved in going to court.
"We won't just let them sue us freely as they please. We will decide on that too."