ASIA Times has released audio recordings of its interview with Umno deputy president Mohamad Hasan, maintaining that the latter had in fact said former prime minister Najib Razak should go to jail.

The clips were of a 76-minute long interview, in which the former Negri Sembilan menteri besar was asked on a wide range of issues.

Journalist Nick Kochan, who wrote the story with Nile Bowie, disputed Mohamad’s version of events.

“After @asiatimesonline published my exclusive interview with Umno deputy chief @tokmatn9, he claimed his remarks were taken out of content, which co-author @nilebowie and I firmly dispute.

“Here are the full recordings. We stand by our reporting,” he tweeted, with the audio clip attached.

The following is a transcript of the disputed portion:

Interviewer: Will you be sorry if Mr Najib (Razak) goes to jail?

Mohamad: Of course as a friend I feel sorry but everybody have to go… you have to face whatever…

Interviewer: Pay their dues.

Mohamad: Pay your dues, isn’t it? If we want to pardon they have to go through the process. You have to go inside first. You cannot… you cannot pardon him before he… what do you call… the process, you know? That is wrong. That is absolutely wrong.

Interviewer: To be pardoned without the process?

Mohamad: Yeah.

Interviewer: And the process requires to serve some time and then…

Mohamad: Yeah. A lot of Umno leaders, prominent leaders, last time, Datuk Harun, the chief minister of Selangor, the most powerful that time, he had to serve. Mokhtar Hashim, he had to serve. Everybody has to serve before they got a pardon. Simple as that – there’s no two way about it.

Interviewer: No special treatment.

Earlier today, Mohamad denied saying Najib should go to jail.

“(What they reported) is inaccurate,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

“What I said was that Najib needs to be given a fair trial. If he is found guilty, then so be it. But it must be a fair trial.”

On the issue of pardoning, Mohamad said he was merely explaining the process to the news portal.

In July 2020, Najib was convicted of criminal breach of trust, abuse of power and money-laundering in relation to RM42 million belonging to SRC International, a subsidiary of 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).

Judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali, who presided over the case, sentenced him to 12 years in jail and fined him RM210 million. The decision was upheld by the Court of Appeal last December.

It is now in its final leg of appeal at the Federal Court, which will hear the case on August 15.

Najib and his lawyer, Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, had contended that the Pekan MP was not given a fair trial because Nazlan was a legal counsel to Maybank, a lender to SRC, and should have recused himself.

Separately, Najib is also facing other 1MDB-related trials – for tampering with the firm’s audit report, and for money-laundering and corruption involving RM2.3 billion of 1MDB funds. – July 5, 2022.