KUALA LUMPUR, May 7 — A Majlis Amanah Rakyat (MARA) council member said yesterday that he did not represent the government agency when remarking that Nur Fitri Azmeer Nordin should be given a “second chance” after the student was convicted of possessing child pornography.

MARA council member Nazir Hussin Akhtar Hussin slammed an unnamed news portal for misquoting him and warned it to correct the news article or face further action.

“My comments were based on my personal opinion and did not represent MARA as reported because I’m not in a capacity to do so,” Nazir said on his Facebook page.

“Unfortunately, my statement was taken and made to seem as if it represented MARA. To me, this is not ethical, as if the reporter had an agenda and I was the victim,” he added.

The Star’s Malay-language news portal, MStar, reported Tuesday Nazir Hussin as saying that MARA will allow Nur Fitri, a Malaysian maths scholar at the Imperial College London, to continue his studies at any MARA institution locally after the 23-year-old serves his jail sentence in the UK for possession of child pornography.

Nazir was quoted saying that MARA has agreed to give Nur Fitri a “second chance” as he was considered a “smart” student who can be an “asset” to the country, sparking public outrage and the Twitter hashtag #NoSecondChance.

MARA corporate communications said yesterday that Nazir’s comments should not be regarded as the council’s official stand on the matter and that it maintains its May 2 statement on the issue, which said Nur Fitri’s student loan was cancelled following his conviction.

Nazir put up on Facebook the transcript of his conversation with the reporter whom he accused of misquoting him.

According to Nazir, the reporter asked: “Does MARA want to give a second chance to the student?”, to which Nazir replied: “I can’t comment. If you want my personal opinion, I can give it, but it doesn’t represent MARA”.

Nazir also said Nur Fitri should be given a “second chance” for his future as “everyone makes mistakes”.

When asked if MARA will continue sponsoring Nur Fitri locally, however, Nazir said he could not comment and it wasn’t fair to answer now.

“We’ve only been reading about it in the papers and hearing it from other sources, so we need to examine Nur Fitri’s case first. Whether he’s truly guilty, how big was his offence, whether he can be helped or not, we must look at all these things and it will be done by professionals from MARA. I cannot comment further,” said Nazir.

London’s Metropolitan Police Service said last week that Nur Fitri, who was studying on a MARA scholarship at Imperial College London, was found to be in possession of over 30,000 videos and photographs of child pornography and with a life-sized mannequin of a young boy in his room.

According to the Met, the 23-year-old was sentenced at Southwark Crown Court to five years’ jail on April 30 for 13 offences of possessing and making indecent images of children, as well as intent to distribute the materials. But the London court told Malay Mail Online yesterday that the imprisonment sentence was 18 months.