Najib loses his cool during interview with Al Jazeera

Najib (right) speaking to Aljazeera's Mary Ann Jolley during the interview.. - Photo courtesy of Aljazeera

KUALA LUMPUR: Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak lost his cool several times during an interview with international news agency Al Jazeera as he was quizzed over matters like the notorious "pink diamond" and 1MDB.

During the interview, he said investigators should probe other international figures allegedly involved in siphoning funds from the 1MDB scandal, and not just stop at Jho Low.

Speaking to Al Jazeera's 101 East in an exclusive interview on Friday (Oct 26), he said they must be investigated to find out where the money disappeared to.

"Fine … let them do their work but don't just stop at Jho Low. Get others involved as well because there are other international figures who probably are involved. They must also be investigated.

"We want to know where the money flowed to. And who really benefited from the whole 1MDB issue. I would like to know too," he told Al Jazeera's reporter Mary Ann Jolley. She had asked him what the six investigations on corruption related to 1MDB that were going on around the world.

In the hour-long grilling which saw Najib lose his cool a couple of times, he also confirmed that he did not verify the source of the RM2.6bil or who owns the funds, as he assumed that the donations were connected to Saudi Arabia after King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud had assured him that he would support him

"The question is when I received the funds, was I aware of the source of the money… or whether the source of the money is in dispute as to who owns the funds, certainly in my capacity I would not have access to banking knowledge.

"Because whoever owns the fund is protected by the secrecy of banking laws so when I received the funds, in all honesty I thought it was a genuine donation and at that particular time, the knowledge that I had was based on a conversation with King Abdullah," he said.

When Mary Ann pointed to him that the US Department of Justice (DoJ) report now clearly shows the paper trail and that he had the powers of the prime minister at that time, he said he would not be able to explain as he had no knowledge that time.

"Yeah, but prime ministers do not have access to banking information," he added.

The 101 East episode featuring the interview will first be aired at 11.30am on the Al Jazeera channel on Saturday (Oct 27) and repeated on Monday (Oct 29) at 12.30am and 1.30pm as well as on Tuesday (Oct 30) at 6.30am and 4.30pm. It will also be featured on the website after the first broadcast: www.aljazeera.com/programmes/101east/