the Malaysian government's move of not sending any representatives there because Malaysia did not recognise the Spanish court as a venue to resolve arbitration issues. In 2019, Tommy Thomas, the attorney general of Malaysia, admitted that Malaysia had no legal grounds to refuse payments to the heirs of the Sultanate of Sulu and offered the resumption of payments in exchange for discontinuation of the commercial arbitration process. Thomas also agreed that the arbitration did not put Malaysian national sovereignty at stake. A preliminary award was given to the heirs of the Sultanate of Sulu in May 2020. Malaysia then filed a suit at the Civil and Criminal Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of Madrid; where the court later decided on 29 June 2021 to nullify the appointment of Dr. Gonzalo Stampa, the arbitrator of the case, and to stop all the proceedings of the case, because the purported intentions of the heirs of the Sulu Sultanate were to reclaim the state of Sabah from Malaysia, thus threatening the integrity of Malaysian sovereignty. The venue of arbitration was later moved to Paris because the Tribunal de grande instance de Paris issued an exequatur of preliminary award in September 2021. Stampa disregarded the order from the criminal court of Spain to cease all proceedings. In February 2022, the Paris Court ruled that Malaysia had violated the treaty signed in 1878 of annual cession payment and would have to pay at least US$14.92 billion (RM62.59 billion) to the descendants of the sultanate of Sulu. In March 2022, Malaysia again filed an application to annul the final award over claims by the sultan of Sulu's heirs since the appointment of arbitrator Dr Gonzalo Stampa was itself annulled by the Madrid High Court in June 2021, rendering any decisions by him to be invalid, including the 2022 award. Lawyers for the heirs indicated that they would seek the award’s recognition and execution, citing a 1958 U.N. Convention on Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards. In July 2022, court bailiffs in Luxembourg served Petronas Azerbaijan (Shah Denis) and Petronas South Caucus with a "saiseie-arret" or a "seize order" on behalf of the descendants of the sultan of Sulu. Petronas said it would defend its legal position, and further clarified that the entire assets had been divested in 2021 and all the proceeds had been repatriated, rendering the actions baseless. In the same month,