KUALA LUMPUR, July 30 — Negri Sembilan Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan has denied he was the man recorded in a leaked audio clip calling for the prime minister to be arrested.
The leak is the second in as many days purportedly of senior Umno leaders commenting on claims that funds from 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) ended up in the prime minister’s personal accounts.
“I strongly deny the baseless allegation by certain quarters that the audio recording about Najib that is going viral on social media, uploaded by an individual, is my voice,” the Rantau assemblyman said in a statement reported by news portal Malaysiakini.
“I stress that I have nothing to do with the audio recording or the person who supposedly made the confession.”
In the audio file that appears to be one-half of a conversation, the speaker expresses support for former deputy prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s remarks over the weekend on the 1MDB controversy.
The speaker states his agreement with the Umno deputy president who asked why the culprits behind the 1MDB scandal have not been arrested and said that a “Najib” should be arrested together with others already detained in the ongoing investigation.
The man also called it illogical that the people already arrested, which he said includes an office boy, could be responsible for running up RM42 billion in debts.
In a hastily-convened press conference in Putrajaya on Tuesday, Datuk Seri Najib Razak confirmed rumours that Muhyiddin will be replaced by Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
The Umno veteran had during the weekend urged Najib to satisfactorily explain the 1MDB controversy, claiming that he and other ministers were unaware of the “real facts”.
This resulted in a rare public rebuke from the Prime Minister’s Office on Monday, which urged Muhyiddin and other members of the administration not to pre-judge the ongoing investigations on 1MDB.
A video recording was also leaked last night showing Muhyiddin claiming to guests at his Damansara Heights house on Tuesday that RM2.6 billion in 1MDB funds were channelled into the personal bank accounts of Najib.
Malay Mail Online was unable to immediately verify the authenticity of the leaked video, but former minister Tan Sri Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir, who was present during the meeting, confirmed the incident captured on camera was genuine.
