Najib admitted he got worked up and got angry momentarily when the murder of Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu was raised and focused upon by interviewer Mary Ann Jolley.
He said although the interview went beyond the schedule and scope which they had agreed to, he was happy to answer the additional questions.
“Yes, there was an interview with Al Jazeera this morning which started at 10.30am, the same time when my wife, my son and my stepson were being questioned by the police all at once.
“However, the interviewer, who was previously responsible for a programme about the Altantuya murder, had persisted on the topic — a topic which I had denied involvement in many times over the past decade, a murder which has gone through multiple court hearings and a murder which, two weeks ago, I had asked my associate to make a formal report to the police asking them to investigate again to clear my name.
“That topic, together with the concern about my family, got me worked up and I lost my cool for a moment,” he said in a Facebook post.
The Pekan MP expressed hope that Al Jazeera takes this into account and no longer links his name to “this tragic loss of a young mother”.
“It is simply not true that I was involved despite all the admittedly well-designed politically-motivated propaganda to link me.
“Although there were several occasions when Mary Ann repeated questions despite me having already answering her earlier, overall I believe I managed to get my views across as truthfully as I could.
“I consider it a good interview that can help the world understand more about the 1MDB issue from my perspective and to help clear my name,” he said.
Najib thanked Al Jazeera for the interview and added that he would not hesitate to agree to another interview by the station again.
In the interview with Jolley, Najib defended the previous Barisan Nasional-led administration’s decision to deport the journalist in 2015 over her investigation into the murder of the Mongolian model.
“Good thing we deported you. You were a nuisance,” the former prime minister told Jolley, who interviewed him for Al Jazeera’s 101 East show.
“Because as far as I am concerned, fabricating lies is not something we want to tolerate in this country.”
During the hour-long grilling, Najib lost his cool a couple of times.
The show will be aired on the Al Jazeera news channel Saturday at 11.30am (Malaysian time).
In 2015, the news channel had resurrected the controversial murder of Altantuya that many had accused the then Malaysian government of covering up.
Jolley, in the programme, had revealed that she was deported from Malaysia in June that year for reporting on the murder.
The home ministry told Parliament then that local authorities had banned Jolley from entering Malaysia because her actions were deemed a threat to national security and public order.