The International Court of Justice (ICJ), in The Hague, will hold public hearings of Malaysia's request for interpretation of the ICJ judgment concerning sovereignty over Pedra Branca or Pulau Batu Puteh, from June 18 to June 22 at the Peace Palace in The Hague.

The ICJ, in a press release on its website yesterday, said Malaysia would start the first round of oral argument on June 18 at 3pm until 6pm, while Singapore would do so on June 19, same time.

The second round of oral argument by Malaysia will be on June 21 at 10am to 11.30am and Singapore, on June 22 at 3pm until 4.30pm.

On Feb 2, last year, Malaysia filed for revision of the ICJ judgment over Pulau Batu Puteh, citing three documents recently declassified by the United Kingdom, to support the application.

These are the internal correspondence of the Singapore colonial authorities in 1958, an incident report filed in 1958 by a British naval officer, and an annotated map of naval operations from the 1960s.

The documents which were then unknown both to ICJ and Malaysia at the time of judgment in 2008, were discovered in the National Archives between Aug 4, 2016, and Jan 30, 2017.

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.

On Feb 16, last year, attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali said he would lead a team of experts to argue at the hearings.

-- Bernama