Attorney-General Mohamed Apandi Ali, in a statement today, said the application was filed yesterday.
“The application, which was filed at the International Court of Justice, The Hague, was made by Malaysia upon the discovery of some fact of such a nature as to be a decisive factor, which was, when the judgment was given, unknown to the court and also to Malaysia as the party claiming revision.
“We are also confident that the requirements as stipulated under Article 61 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice have been met in that, inter alia, the application for revision is brought within six months of the discovery of the new fact, and within 10 years of the date of the judgment,” he said.
He said Malaysia’s application for a revision of the judgment was a continuation of the process embarked on May 9, 2003 by both Malaysia and the Republic of Singapore, when both nations agreed to submit the dispute pertaining to sovereignty over Pulau Batu Puteh (Pedra Branca), Middle Rocks and South Ledge to the ICJ (“Special Agreement”).
Apandi said the discovery of the new fact was important and should be ventilated in a court of law accordingly.
“Thus, as agreed by both parties in the Special Agreement, the International Court of Justice is the appropriate forum for this,” he said.
On May 23, 2008, the ICJ ruled that Singapore had sovereignty over Pulau Batu Puteh while Malaysia owned Middle Rocks, and South Ledge belonged to the state in whose territorial waters it is located.
Pulau Batu Puteh is located 7.7 nautical miles off the coast of Johor’s Tanjung Penyusuh.
Meanwhile, in response to queries from TODAY daily, Apandi would only say that the “new facts” were “discovered after the British government declassified the documents recently”.
When asked to identify the specific documents, Apandi reportedly said: “Not now … when Singapore is being notified, they will be served with the relevant papers.”
Asked how confident he was with this latest legal challenge, he replied: “I’m very confident, so is my team at The Hague.”
The Singapore foreign affairs ministry said the republic had set up its legal team to respond to Malaysia’s application.
“The team includes Attorney-General Lucien Wong, Professor S Jayakumar, Professor Tommy Koh, and former Chief Justice Chan Sek Keong.
“Malaysia has informed us that it has made an application for revision of the ICJ’s judgment,” an MFA spokesman said in a statement today.
“Its judgment was final, binding and without appeal,” it said.
The ministry however agreed that under Article 61 of the Statute of the ICJ, an application for revision of a judgment might be made only when it was based upon the discovery of some fact of such a nature as to be a decisive factor, and which was, when judgment was given, unknown to the court and the party claiming revision.