KUALA LUMPUR, May 6 — The Attorney-General (AG) has refused step into the controversy surrounding Nur Fitri Azmeer Nordin, the Malaysian student jailed in the UK for child pornography, declining comment when asked how local laws would have dealt with similar offenders.

Via email yesterday, Malay Mail Online had asked the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) to explain if Malaysia has specific laws to deal with offenders such as Nur Fitri and whether child pornography is treated any differently from regular pornography.

“For your information, your queries have been referred to the Attorney-General’s office.

“However, the AG’s office said no comments will be issued on the matter for the time being,” said the reply from the AGC’s public relations officer Mohd Amsyari Mohd Suhaimi.

Nur Fitri was reportedly sentenced to five years’ imprisonment on April 30 in the UK for 13 offences, including possessing and making indecent videos and images of children with the intention to distribute the material.

According to British media reports last week, the 23-year-old, who was studying on a Majlis Amanah Rakyat (MARA) scholarship at Imperial College London, was found to be in possession of over 30,000 videos and photographs of child pornography that London police described as “some of the most extreme” materials they have ever seen.

Police who raided his home in London found the youth sitting beside a life-sized mannequin of a young boy.

He reportedly possessed 601 “Category A” videos and images which depicted abuse involving penetrative sexual acts with children, among the tens of thousands of indecent pictures and videos.

MARA said on the weekend that it has rescinded Nur Fitri’s scholarship but one council member claimed to MStar yesterday that the government agency intends to offer the youth a place in any of its institutions upon his return from the UK.

On Monday, Rural and Regional Development Minister Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal said his ministry is considering appealing Nur Fitri’s five-year sentence.

Their decisions have riled Malaysians and sparked a firestorm of protests on social media, with Internet users criticising the local authorities for protecting the “paedophile”.

One user Hanie Razaif-Bohlender has also started an online petition urging MARA not to allow Nur Fitri to continue his studies in its institutions upon his return from the UK.

This afternoon, however, MARA said the agency stands by its weekend statement on the case and declined to confirm or deny if Nur Fitri would be allowed to continue his studies here.