Singapore to study Malaysia's application for revision of ICJ judgement

Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said Singapore was closely studying Malaysia's application and documentation and 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.

MFA noted that in the judgment on the case of May 23, 2008, the ICJ found that sovereignty over Pedra Branca belonged to Singapore, sovereignty over Middle Rocks belonged to Malaysia, and sovereignty over South Ledge belonged to the State in the territorial waters of which it was located.

"Its judgment was final, binding and without appeal," it said.

MFA said 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.

"Such an application must be made within 10 years of the date of the judgment and at latest, within six months of the discovery of the new fact," it added.

Earlier, citing a discovery of new fact, Malaysia's Attorney-General Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali said it was important and should be ventilated in a court of law, accordingly.

Meanwhile, in response to queries from TODAY, 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."