Ministry considers appealing for convicted ex-Mara student in London

ROMPIN: The Ministry of Rural and Regional Development will consider whether to appeal to the Southwark Crown court in London to reduce the sentence imposed on former Majlis Amanah Rakyat (Mara) loan student Nur Fitri Azmeer Nordin, 23.

Its minister, Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal said this when commenting on the London court's decision to sentence Nur Fitri to five years in prison on 13 offences of possessing more than 30,000 pornographic images and videos of children.

"We can appeal (to reduce the length of the sentence), the problem is we are subjected to the prevailing laws of the country. We have to respect the laws that other countries practise," he told reporters after attending the Mara programme with Rompin entrepreneurs in Kuala Rompin on Monday.

According to British newspapers, the smart mathematics student at Imperial College London was arrested during a raid at his home in Queensborough Terrace nearby Hyde Park on Nov 20 last year, while 600 category 'A' videos and images - defined by the British authorities as 'exreme form of child sexual abuse' were seized.

Mara, who were reported to have sent Nur Fitri to London to further his studies last year, terminated the study loan upon his conviction on April 30. - Bernama