Last week the Court of Appeal sentenced nine Filipino citizens to death, overturning the Kota Kinabalu High Court’s life sentence on them last year. Their crime? Being part of the 2013 armed intrusion in Lahad Datu, Sabah. Fifty-six militants of the so-called "Royal Security Forces of the Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo", nine Malaysian security officers and six civilians were killed in the conflict. Today we try to understand the implications of this sentence might have for  stability in the Sulu region.