evidence: The Paris Court of Appeal’s judgement on Tuesday found that the arbitral tribunal that heard the petition filed by the Filipino heirs of the last sultan of Sulu – a region of northern Borneo in present-day Malaysia – did not have jurisdiction over the case, according to a statement by Malaysian Minister of Law Azalina Othman Said. [...] The dispute stems from an agreement signed in 1878 between Sulu Sultan Mohammed Jamalul Alam and two European colonists for the exploitation of resources in his territory, which then spanned rainforest-covered islands in present-day Philippines and the oil-rich Malaysian state of Sabah, on the northern tip of Borneo island. [...] The Philippines has never completely dropped its claim to Sabah, whose people voted, once the British left, to join the newly independent Malaya in the Malaysian federation in 1963.